Columbia  5:!nttJer^ttp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


GIVEN  BY 

Hetty  bchultz 


CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 


(  iiAHi.Ks    1j;\/.    I'll.  I). 


CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 


BY 

CHARLES  LENZ,  Ph.D. 

Author  of  "The  Future  of  the  American  Democracy,"  "The 

United  States  as  a  World  Power,"  "The  Causes 

of  the  War  of  Independence,"  etc. 


Editor  and  Pxjbusher  of 
ORIGINAL  RIGHTS  MAGAZINE 


PUBLISHED  BY 

KATHARINA  LENZ  and 
HEINRICH  LINCOLN  LENZ 

Widow  and  Son  of  the  Author 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
MRS.  KATHARINA  LENZ 


CHARLES  LENZ,  Ph.D. 

In  looking  over  the  activities  and  achievements  of  the 
author  of  ' '  Cassock  and  Sword ' '  we  are  at  once  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  wide  range  of  his  intellectual  sympathies. 
He  was  a  student  of  history  and  economics  and  wrote  illu- 
minatingly  and  with  enthusiasm  on  "The  Future  of  the 
American  Democracy,"  "The  United  States  as  a  World 
Power,"  "The  Causes  of  the  War  of  Independence,"  "The 
Spanish  American  War,"  "Municipalities,"  "Christian 
Union,"  "Der  Kulturkampf , "  "Socialism"  and  "The  Uni- 
versities. ' ' 

An  essay  entitled  "Leo  III  and  the  Reversal  of  the 
Papal  Policy  of  a  Thousand  Yeare"  won  for  him  distinction 
from  the  University  of  Gottingen,  and  a  prize  of  1200  marks. 

In  these  erudite  writings  the  author  manifested  a  patri- 
otic fervor  and  love  for  American  Institutions  which  be- 
tokened a  deep  appreciation  for  the  country  of  his  adop- 
tion. Naturally  of  an  enthusiastic  nature,  his  patriotism 
found  full  expression  during  the  Civil  War,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  which  he  enlisted  in  the  46th  Regiment,  and  fought 
with  honor  during  that  entire  conflict.  At  the  battle  of 
Fredericksburg  he  received  a  serious  wound  from  a  bursting 
shell,  a  piece  of  which  he  carried  with  him  to  the  grave. 

During  the  Draft  Riots  of  New  York  City  he  distin- 
guished himself  by  significant  gallantry  and  earned  the  Con- 
gressional ]\Iedal.  He  counted  among  his  personal  friends 
General  Sigel  and  other  military  notables  of  war  fame.  He 
was  and  remained  to  the  end  an  active  and  beloved  member 
of  Koltes  Post  G.  A.  R.,  and  to  its  members  his  death  was  a 
personal  loss. 

But  not  only  by  the  sword  did  he  gain  fame;  in  like 
manner  he  used  his  pen  in  war  against  sham.  Educated  at 
a  German  University  he  was  later  honored  with  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  by  the  University  of  Heidelberg 
for  lioyioris  causa.  His  exceptional  mental  training  served 
him  in  good  stead  in  his  later  intellectual  activities,  for  as  a 
journalist  he  found  a  splendid  opportunity  to  exploit  the 


vi  CHARLES  LENZ,  Ph.D. 

genius  of  his  pen.  He  became  editor  of  many  of  the  leading 
metropolitan  journals,  and  for  a  time  was  editorially  con- 
nected with  the  New  York  Staats-Zeitung,  The  Assocserte 
Presse,  New  Yorker  Ilerold,  Volks-Zeitung  and  others.  It 
was  with  greatest  enthusiasm  and  effective  energy  that  he 
entered  into  the  publication  of  the  Original  Rights  Maga- 
zine, the  organ  of  a  society  that  owed  its  foundation  and 
later  success  very  largely  to  his  personal  endeavors.  He 
was  drawn  instinctively  to  all  subjects  that  had  for  their 
end  the  betterment  of  humanity,  and  as  editor  of  Capital 
and  Labor  he  did  much  in  advancing  the  best  interests  of 
these  usually  conflicting  elements. 

His  literary  activities  extended  over  a  period  of  forty- 
seven  years,  during  which  we  find  him  actively  engaged  in 
furthering  the  cause  of  the  German  Evangelical  Alliance, 
the  Federation  of  Labor,  and  the  Boot  and  Leather  Manu- 
facturers' Association.  Profoundly  concerned  in  every- 
thing that  had  to  do  with  the  preservation  and  perpetuation 
of  American  liberty,  he  found  in  the  "Guardians"  of 
Liberty  an  organization  that  enlisted  his  fullest  support 
and  cooperation. 

His  was  the  sort  of  Americanism  that  could  not  be  divided 
with  a  hyphen,  but  ever  loyal  to  our  countr^^  he  gave  to 
her  the  best  of  heart  and  mind,  and  in  this  spared  neither 
purse  nor  energy.  He  died  at  the  age  of  73  on  April  5th, 
1914,  in  Brooklyn,  where  for  some  years  before  his  death 
he  made  his  home. 

In  politics  he  was  an  active  Republican  and  fought  with 
voice  and  ballot  for  personal  liberty  and  good  government. 
He  was  a  friend  and  co-worker  with  Hon.  Seth  Low,  Hon. 
George  MeClellan,  Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor  and  U.  S.  Su- 
preme Court  Justice  Hughes. 

In  his  posthumous  work  "Cassock  and  Sword"  we  have 
the  refined  fruit  of  an  intellect  ripened  and  enriched  by  a 
life  of  abundant  social  and  intellectual  experience.  It  is  the 
labor  of  a  life  time,  and  into  its  production  went  that  sort  of 
enthusiasm  that  makes  for  conscientious  work. 

The  author  was  a  man  of  keen  mind,  broad  views,  and 
warm  sympathies  as  well  as  a  good  hater  of  imposture  and 
injustice.  It  mattered  not  to  him  what  form  these  repre- 
hensible human  attributes  might  take,  whether  in  religion 
or  economics,  whenever  he  came  in  contact  with  either,  his 
righteous  anger  was  aroused,  and  in  fighting  them  his  warm- 


CHARLES  LENZ,  Ph.D.  vii 

est  cooperation  and  best  endeavor  could  always  be  counted 
upon. 

When  as  a  young  man  on  a  Connecticut  farm,  he  first 
heard  of  slavery  and  its  horrors,  he  conceived  a  hatred  for 
this  institution  and  forthwith  became  a  zealous  abolitionist. 
Nor  did  his  mind  change  when  the  call  came  to  enlist. 
Without  hesitation  he  entered  the  ranks  of  the  valiant 
fighters  for  our  Union  and  with  the  heroes  of  the  greatest 
of  all  conflicts  measured  swords  with  the  Southern  enemy. 

His  military  and  journalistic  friends  and  well  wishers  will 
welcome  this  product  of  his  painstaking  labors,  and  in  the 
pages  of  "Cassock  and  Sword"  they  will  again  hear  his 
vibrant  voice,  and  be  held  in  the  spell  of  his  splendid  ora- 
tory. 

To  praise  this  final  achievement  of  a  life  so  rich  in  accom- 
plishment were  a  presumption.  "Cassock  and  Sword"  is 
given  to  the  world  that  it  may  judge  of  its  worth  and  we 
think  be  bettered  by  its  perusal.  The  author  has  done  his 
work  and  done  it  well,  and  whether  on  the  field  of  battle 
or  in  the  quiet  of  his  study,  his  one  ambition  was  and  re- 
mained to  his  death,  loyalty  to  a  high  ideal. 


PREFACE 

All  process  of  the  human  race  has  involved  a  martyr- 
dom of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit.  Real  progress  is  effected 
when  great  moral  ideas  conceived  by  advanced  thinkers  be- 
come the  property  of  large  masses  and  are  translated  into 
political  action.  This  process  creates  a  collision  between 
the  progressive  and  reactionary  forces  and  entails  terrible 
suffering  on  the  part  of  both  indi\dduals  and  entire  nations. 
Hence  are  the  pages  of  history  \vritten  in  blood. 

Christianity,  teaching  the  humane  in  religion ;  the  Refor- 
mation proclaiming  the  right  of  free  thought ;  the  struggle 
of  the  Netherlands  for  independence  and  the  foundation  of 
modern  democracy;  the  English  and  American  revolutions, 
aiming  to  achieve  equal  political  rights  for  all  men ;  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  during  the  past  generation; 
every  one  of  these  mighty  moral  or  political  evolutions  of 
mankind  shook  the  framework  of  society  to  its  foundation ; 
and  success  was  only  achieved  amidst  the  ruins  of  former 
ideals  and  institutions,  and  after  the  shedding  of  a  sea  of 
blood. 

To  the  student  of  history  and  careful  observer  of  man- 
kind signs  are  rapidly  multiplying  that  the  human  race  is 
again  entering  an  era  of  fundamental  social  changes. 

Shall  it  be  an  era  of  gradual  progress  which  is  to  replace 
materialism  ^\4th  humanity,  this  being  the  new  gospel  that, 
at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  governs  the  thought 
of  the  philosopher? 

Or  shall  it  be  a  volcanic  upheaval  of  society,  a  de- 
structive rising  of  the  masses,  a  general  negation  of  all 
systems  of  religion  and  of  government,  and  of  the  social 
and  economic  teachings  now  prevailing,  and  the  setting  up 
of  economic  tenets  leading  to  anarchy  and  ultimately  to 
military  despotism  ?  Or  shall  it  be  a  revolt  of  the  intellec- 
tual class  to  secure  for  itself  moral  and  political  leader- 
ship and  at  the  same  time  for  the  masses  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  liberty?  And  shall  this  revolt  too 
prove  triumphant  only  through  the  policy  of  "Blood  and 
Iron?" 


X  PREFACE 

Shall  it  be  an  ora  of  spiritual  darkness  under  the  despot- 
ism of  tlie  Homan  tlifocrac-y,  a  falling  back  into  a  state  of 
idolatry,  a  division  of  society  into  the  very  rich  and  the 
very  poor,  the  luxurious  enjoyment  of  things  earthly  to 
the  one  and  to  the  other  spiritual  and  economic  enslave- 
ment with  a  promise  of  honey  and  manna  in  the  hereafter? 
Shall  Christian  civilization  share  the  fate  of  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome? 

So  far  as  mortal  can  judge  from  great  historical  events, 
Providence  has  assigned  to  the  American  people  a  tre- 
mendous role  and  an  advanced  position  in  the  progress  of 
the  human  race  toward  a  higher  and  better  condition.  The 
time  may  be  nigh  when  the  American  people  must  again 
decide,  whether  they  will  continue  to  accomplish  their 
mission  in  the  spirit  of  past  achievements,  or  whether  in 
the  future  they  will  sustain  the  morally  reactionary  and 
anti-social  forces  that  for  centuries  have  retarded  the 
progress  of  the  human  race  in  the  direction  of  the  humane, 
in  other  words,  that  have  prevented  the  realization  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man. 

From  the  Migration  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  War  of  In- 
dependence, from  the  Establishment  of  the  Republic  to  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion,  the  American  people  were  true  to 
their  humane  mission ;  they  have  filled  the  pages  of  history 
with  many  heroic  deeds  and  marshaled  the  army  of  events 
against  medieval  superstition  and  despotism. 

But  now  this  age  of  democratic  progress  appears  to  have 
grown  old  and  is  longing  for  rest  after  having  produced 
many  wonderful  material  results,  as  well  as  genuine  tri- 
umphs of  science  and  inventions,  though  sadly  lacking  in 
the  humane.  The  question  arises  whether  suffering  from 
spiritual  exhaustion,  and  crushed  by  the  yoke  of  plutocracy 
and  theocracy,  it  will  sink  into  the  grave,  or  whether  it 
will  experience  a  new  and  more  glorious  birth  either  by  the 
peaceful  progress  of  society  or  by  a  convulsive  eruption  like 
that  of  1792.  Two  historical  events,  the  clerical  revolu- 
tion of  the  16th  century  and  the  French  revolution  of  the 
18th  century,  which  overthrew  the  spiritual,  economic,  and 
social  despotism  of  the  Papacy  and  of  the  ancient  regime, 
have  taught  us  what  we  may  expect  when  wealth,  the  ruling 
power  at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  denies  the  nat- 
ural right  of  intelligence  to  rule  over  society  or  attempts  to 
stifle  the  holy  flame  of  spiritual  and  political  liberty  and  to 


PREFACE  xi 

repress  the  democratic  masses  who  have  come  to  under- 
stand their  rights  and  are  becoming  cognizant  of  their 
power. 

Foreseeing  the  coming  of  a  possibly  fateful  crisis  this 
book  has  been  written  to  remind  the  American  people  of 
the  lessons  of  history  and  impress  upon  them  the  sacred 
trust  with  which  the  great  American  democracy  has  been 
charged  through  racial  traditions  and  the  heritage  of  the 
Reformation,  as  yet  the  greatest  achievement  of  the  human 
spirit. 

It  is  the  duty  and  province  of  the  intellectual  class,  of  our 
clergy,  and  of  our  universities  to  preserve  these  traditions, 
to  enlarge  the  spiritual,  economic,  and  social  achievements 
of  the  Reformation  and  to  apply  its  precepts  to  the  de- 
velopment of  American  society  that  its  progress  toward  an 
ideal  democracy  may  be  orderly  and  of  beneficent  char- 
acter. And  it  is  the  special  duty  of  our  women  to  leaven 
with  light  and  sweetness,  and  inspire  with  fortitude,  the 
ever  onward  struggling  mass  of  humanity  and  defend  the 
sacred  ties  of  the  family  which  is  the  solid,  immovable 
foundation  rock  of  the  structure  of  democratic  institutions. 

I\Iay  the  mothers  of  the  growing  generations  in  whose 
keeping  we  must  leave  the  fate  of  the  great  American 
democracy,  and  probably  that  of  all  mankind,  teach  their 
sons  that  liberty  is  worth  dying  for  and  set  constantly 
before  them  the  glorious  example  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Reformation,  of  our  race  and  nation  who  suffered  and 
perished  for  their  faith  and  for  righteousness,  their  Crea- 
tor's command. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS 
PART  I 

THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

I    Chbistianity  and  the  Teuton  Race 1 

II     The  Reformation 18 

III    The  Struggle  of  Races  Ovee  the  Papacy 40 

PART  II 

THE  GREAT   AMERICAN   DEMOCRACY 
I    The  Great  American  Democracy .     66 

PART  III 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE 
I    The  War  of  the  Rebellion  and  Its  Effect  on  Amer- 
ican Society 92 

II    The  Shortcomings  of  the  Republican  Party  .  .111 

PART  IV 

THE  ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY 
I    Defects  in  the  Organic  Structure  of  the  Republic  .   127 

II    Municipalities 147 

III    Moral  and  Social  Defects  and  Theie  Causes  .  .156 

PART  V 
PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
I    The  Character  and  Growth  of  the  Roman  Establish- 
ment       166 

II    The  Anti-Catholic  Movement 178 


CONTENTS 

PART  VI 

OUR  ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    A  Jesuitical  Policy.    Many  Causes  Contributed  to 

THE  Growth  of  Romanism  on  American  Soil     .      .186 

II     Reaching  out  for  the  Presidency 194 

III    The  Church  of  the  Poor,  Illiterate  and  Morally  De> 

graded 201 

PART  VII 

PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND   ROME 
I    Roman  Aggressions  and  Hypocritical  Professions     .  204 
II    Clericalism  or  Democracy 213 

PART  VIII 
LEO  XIII  AND  THE  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  PAPACY 

I    Papal  Hope  and  Papal  Delusion 220 

II    Leo   XIII 227 

III    The  Evolution  of  Pope  Leo's  Policy 234 

PART  IX 

CHRISTIAN  UNION,  PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  THE 
PROTESTANT  MASSES 

I     The  Aims  of  Leo  XIII 243 

II    Leo's  Spirituax  Will  and  Testament 246 

III  Celibacy  and  the  Sham  Concessions  of  the  Vatican  .  250 

IV  Is  the  Catholic  Church  of  America  a  Possibility?  .  253 
V    The  Mission  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  .  258 

VI  The  Transformation  in  Protestant  Belief  ....  263 

VII  The  Waning  of  the  Protestant  Churches  ....  267 

VIII  The  Protestant  Clergy  and  Their  Dependent  Position  269 

IX  The  Workingmen  and  the  Protestant  Churches  .     .  275 

PART  X 
FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON 

I    An  American  Patrimonium  Petri 278 

II     President   and   Pontifex 284 


CONTENTS 

PART  XI 
THE    MISSION    OF    OUR   DEPUTY    POPES 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    Roman    Diplomacy,    Cunning,    Insolence,    and    Du- 
plicity         291 

II     The  American  Saloon  and  Jesuitical  Morality   .      .   302 
III    Leo's  Encyclical  on  American  Affairs 306 

PART  XII 
THE  SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES 

I    The  Organization  and  Evolution  of  Society     .     .     .  309 

II    Industrial  Feudalism,  Capitalism,  and  Anarchism   .  321 

III  The  American  Farmer  and  Wokkingman 330 

IV  Socialism 335 

V    The  Sublime  Mission  of  Our  Universities  ....  344 


CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

PART  I 
THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE 

CHAPTER  I 

Christianity  and  the  Teuton  Race 

section  i 

Christianity  as  a  Social  Force.  Religion  represents  in 
the  life  of  nations  their  emotions  and  humane  tendencies. 
Religions  systems  are  the  creation  of  the  intellect,  and  in 
their  structure  are  intiuenced  and  modified  by  environments. 
Religion  represents  in  the  heart  and  life  of  man  that  which 
is  characteristic  of  his  race.  Therefore  in  the  life  of  peo- 
ples their  religious  manifestations  and  their  political  as- 
pirations are  inter-dependent  and  inseparable  and  must  be 
considered  in  their  relation  and  entirety. 

In  the  beginning,  Christianity,  as  a  religious  system,  was 
a  modification  of  Judaism,  reviving  some  of  its  demo- 
cratic and  socialistic  features  on  which,  before  the  de- 
velopment of  theocracy,  the  ^Mosaic  system  had  partly 
rested.  With  the  absorption  of  the  Hebrew  tribes  into  the 
Roman  empire,  the  time  had  come  when  the  fundamental 
truths  of  Judaism  and  their  exposition  by  profound  think- 
ers were  to  be  revealed  to  the  civilized  world.  During  the 
century  preceding  the  advent  of  Christ  the  Judean  race 
was  filled  with  ^Messianic  expectations.  The  evils  brought 
upon  the  people  of  Judea  by  their  conquerors,  the  greedi- 
ness and  immorality  of  the  high  priests,  and  the  bitter 
strife  of  the  religious-political  parties  had  revived  within 
the  nation's  soul  the  memory  of  the  Divine  promise  of  a 
Messiah  who  should  deliver  Israel  from  the  foreign  yoke 
and   internal   woes.     The   ultra-nationalists  expected   the 


2  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

INIessiah  to  drive  the  hated  Roman  from  the  sacred  soil, 
the  orthodox  of  the  school  of  Shammai  deemed  that  he  would 
purge  the  faith  from  heathenish  innovations,  the  disciples 
of  the  school  of  Ilillel  anticipated  that  he  would  bring  peace 
on  earth  and  good  fellowship  with  all  men. 

During  this  period  of  Israel's  sorrow  we  may  trace  in 
its  history  all  the  signs  and  embodiments  of  unrest  which 
usually  precede  a  crisis  in  the  life  of  nations.  One  of  these 
embodiments  was  the  sect  of  the  Essenes.  They  were  the 
idealists  in  Israel.  They  looked  forward  to  the  .Messianic 
era  as  a  fulfilment  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  high 
exaltation  of  idealism  they,  like  many  of  their  successors  in 
historj',  failed  to  perceive  that  time  alone  is  the  great  lev- 
eler  of  things  and  men,  that  the  sublime  in  human  nature 
is  a  favor  of  nature  bestowed  on  the  few,  and  that  the 
weight  of  a  mountain  of  embellishment  and  ceremonial 
tassel  hardly  suffices  to  infuse  an  atom  of  truth  into  the  in- 
tellect and  organism  of  the  masses.  The  Essenes  were 
ascetics  who  renounced  the  world  and  its  vanities.  They 
advocated  the  reconstruction  of  society  on  a  basis  of  general 
poverty,  the  community  of  goods,  and  the  negation  of  one's 
self.  They  were  not  cosmopolitans;  they  were  intensely 
national,  so  to  say,  a  combination  of  Knownothingism  and 
communism,  and  in  philosophical  virtues  and  in  the  humane 
far  below  Hillelism. 

The  earliest  Christians  in  part  followed  the  precepts  of 
Judaism,  observing  the  Sabbath,  the  rite  of  circumcision 
and  the  dietary  laws.  They  embraced  poverty  and  fre- 
quently lived  in  common.  They  were  recruited  from  the 
lower  strata  and  because  of  their  poverty  called  tramps  or 
homeless  wanderers.  In  public  estimation  they  only  ap- 
peared to  be  a  fanatical  offshoot  of  the  Essenes. 

During  the  catastrophe  which,  within  two  generations 
of  the  crucifixion  overwhelmed  Judea,  the  insignificant 
Christian  communities  undoubtedly  would  have  disappeared 
under  the  great  wave  which  swept  the  chosen  people  into 
all  the  world  but  for  one  whose  genius  and  personality 
were  destined  to  give  to  Christianity  a  cosmopolitan  garb 
and  to  raise  it  to  a  preponderant  power  in  the  civilized 
world. 

Paul,  a  converted  Jew  and  Roman  citizen,  transmitted 
Christianity  to  the  Hellenic  and  Roman  world.  He  carried 
forth  the  brotherhood  of  man.     His  appeal  to  the  down- 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE      3 

trodden  and  disinherited  to  come  "unto  Christ  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man"  was  heard  throughout  the  Roman 
world  and  will  be  echoed  until  the  masses  shall  appeal  to 
the  Judgment  of  God.  This  message  embracing  all  that  is 
humane  and  the  divinely  inspired  expression  of  God's 
fatherly  love,  of  necessity  became  a  disturbing  element  in 
the  condition  of  Roman  society.  Political  motives  moved 
the  Roman  authorities  to  persecute  the  Christians.  Roman 
statecraft  was  tolerant.  In  religious  matters  it  humored 
every  conquered  nation 's  peculiarities  and  traditions  on  the 
principle:  pay  your  taxes  promptly  and  you  may  believe 
whatever  you  like.  Though  conquered,  the  Hebrews  re- 
fused to  be  merged  in  the  Roman  social  system  and  therefore 
their  loyalty  was  suspected.  The  Roman  authorities  espied 
in  the  Christian  communities  political  centers  of  a  rebellious 
movement  of  the  Hebrews  and  of  the  disappointed  gener- 
ally. 

When  the  elemental  character  of  Christianity  became 
known,  the  Csesars  and  the  politicians,  the  priests  and  the 
usurers,  and  the  spoilsmen  of  every  kind  were  alarmed  by 
the  aggressiveness  and  depth  of  the  economic  and  social 
forces  hidden  in  the  new  faith  which,  unchecked,  might 
level  not  only  the  political  superstructure  of  the  empire  but 
also  overturn  its  economic  foundations.  The  apostles  of 
Christ  and  His  disciples  were  of  the  people  and,  therefore, 
in  their  very  personalities  a  menace  to  the  upper  strata  of 
society.  Like  Jesus,  they  filled  the  hearts  of  the  common 
people,  then  absolutely  without  rights  of  any  kind  and 
without  property,  with  the  love  of  God  and  Avith  faith  in 
the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  heavenly  Father;  they 
consorted  with  the  lowly  and  despised ;  they  lived  in 
poverty  and  in  abstinence  and,  therefore,  set  themselves  and 
their  creed  against  the  prevailing  conceptions  of  the  rela- 
tions of  mankind  and  the  principles  governing  them.  In 
fact,  the  apostles  appealed  to  the  so-called  dangerous  classes 
in  society,  to  the  ever  present  revolutionary  element  in  it. 
Obeying  the  command  of  Christ  "Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  which  are  Caesar's  and  unto  God  the  things  which 
are  God's,"  the  earliest  Christians  gave  no  heed  to  the 
form  of  government,  though  they  recognized  the  necessity 
of  government  under  which  "the  things  which  are  God's," 
His  bounties  and  blessings,  by  right  of  inheritance  were  to 
be  the  property  of  all  His  children. 


CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 


SECTION   II 


Christianity  as  a  Political  Establishment.  It  must  al- 
ways be  left  to  s])eoiilation,  what  might  liavo  been  the  suc- 
cessive stages  of  Christianity,  had  its  devekjpinent  and  its 
earliest  political  ap])li('ation  taken  place  within  the  Teutonic 
tribes  instead  of  within  the  decaying  civilization  of  the 
Roman  empire.  It  may,  however,  be  taken  for  granted  that 
the  humane  in  Christianity  and  its  doctrine  of  brotherly 
love  would  have  developed  the  sympathetic  social  order  of 
the  Teutonic  tribes  into  an  ideal  democracy,  and  that  the 
progress  of  the  human  race  would  have  been  more  rapid 
and  in  all  probability  free  from  most  of  the  horrors  which 
since  have  marked  its  path. 

Though  Judaism  was  the  cradle  of  Christianity,  with  its 
introduction  into  the  heathen  world  the  new  faith  placed 
itself  in  antagonism  to  its  progenitor  and  struck  out  into 
divergent  paths.  In  its  evolution  Christianity  adapted 
itself  first  to  the  political  order  of  the  pagan  Roman  world; 
in  the  course  of  time  with  the  development  of  systematic 
theology  and  a  hierarchical  order  the  new  faith  lost  its  dis- 
tinctive social  features  and  merged  into  the  economic  system 
of  the  times.  Long  before  the  conversion  of  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  and  Christianitj^'s  recognition  as  an  established 
church,  it  had  lost  its  democratic  and  social-revolutionary 
character,  which  it  only  partly  regained  through  the  Refor- 
mation, the  struggle  of  the  Netherlands,  the  English  revo- 
lution, and  the  emigration  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Constantine,  an  astute  statesman,  clearly  perceived  that 
the  tottering  fabric  of  society  could  only  be  upheld  and  the 
advance  of  the  barbarians  repulsed  by  the  inspiring  ten- 
dency of  a  religious  movement  which  had  captivated  the 
masses  and,  at  the  time,  had  been  relieved  of  its  destructive 
social  and  economic  features.  It  offered  the  additional  po- 
litical advantage  of  faith  in  an  invisible  supreme  being 
absolutely  denationalized  and  the  support  of  a  hierarchy 
and  priesthood  as  yet  without  an  ecclesiastical  head  and  an 
official  position  in  the  organism  of  the  state. 

The  division  of  the  Roman  empire  and  the  schism  in  the 
Christian  church  were  closely  related  to  each  other.  The 
one  made  the  other  possible.  Of  cosmopolitan  character, 
the  Christian  church  as  a  state  institution  under  a  despotic 
form  of  government  could  only  exist  as  a  unit.  Through  the 
consolidation  of  the  empire  of  the  East  that  part  of  the 


EXPULSION  OF  THE   PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE      5 

eliurch  territorially  enclosed  by  it  and  an  integral  part  of 
its  social-political  system,  had  to  accommodate  itself  to 
the  character  and  religious  history  of  the  Eastern  peoples. 
Since  the  Byzantine  empire  early  became  consolidated  and 
of  oriental  character  the  Christian  church,  Avithiu  the  boun- 
daries of  that  empire,  had  to  adapt  its  creed,  government 
and  institutions  to  the  political  exigencies  of  the  state,  and 
to  subordinate  its  authority  to  the  autocratic  will  of  the 
worldly  ruler.  Being  utterly  subservient  to  the  political 
power  and  dependent  on  it,  the  Eastern  or  Greek  church 
ceased  to  be  a  civilizing  factor  in  the  Western  world.  In  it 
as  a  political  factor  and  menacing  it,  it  reasserted  itself 
under  Peter  the  Great  with  the  recognition  of  the  Slavic 
empire  as  one  of  the  great  Powers  of  Europe. 

SECTION    III 

The  Latin  Church  and  Christian  Civilization.  The  de- 
velopment, crystallization  and  extension  of  the  Western  or 
Latin  church  was  differently  circumstanced.  Thovigh  en- 
joying the  prestige  of  having  its  seat  of  government  in 
Rome  and,  therefore,  claiming  the  inherent  right  to  uni- 
versal dominion,  the  Western  empire  had  not  the  cohesive- 
ness  of  its  Eastern  rival.  The  influx  of  the  Teutons  and 
barbarians,  the  rebellious  spirit  in  the  provinces  and  the 
general  upheaval  in  society  were  powerful  decentralizing 
forces  favorable  to  the  independent  growth  of  the  Christian 
church  and  to  the  retention  of  the  missionary  spirit  of  the 
apostolic  age.  Thus  for  centuries  the  Latin  church  escaped 
the  thraldom  of  centralized  political  power,  of  subserviency 
to  dynastic  interests,  and  of  nationalization  during  a  period 
of  dissolution  in  the  political  world  due  to  the  adverse  in- 
fluences of  a  dying  civilization.  During  the  times  of  vio- 
lence and  convulsion  covering  the  disruption  of  the  West- 
ern empire,  the  establishment  of  new  political  bodies  and 
the  reorganization  of  society  under  the  supremacy  of  the 
Teutonic  race,  the  persistency  springing  from  the  cosmopoli- 
tan character  of  the  Christian  church  saved  mankind  from 
a  relapse  into  barbarism  and  chaos.  Out  of  the  social  order 
of  the  Teutonic  race  and  from  the  ethical  traditions  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  worlds,  the  Church  evolved  the  cul- 
ture of  the  Christian  age. 

In  the  infancy  of  the  new  political  bodies  the  Church 
acted  a  mother's  part,  protecting  the  masses  against  the 


6  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

assaults  and   oppressions  of  the   mighty  and   civilization 
against  the  aggressions  of  the  barbarians.     Tlie  Church  in- 
spired the  new  organic   bodies  with   the  intellectual   and 
emotional  forces  from  which  all  progress  flows.     In  a  cer- 
tain sense,  the  Latin  church  inherited  and  embodied  the 
Roman  idea  of  universal  dominion,  though  in  a  Christian 
sense  this  could  not  mean  a  lording  of  the  things  earthly 
but  a  spiritual  rule  through  faith  in  a  higher  life  and  the 
application  of  the  doctrine  of  brotherly  love,  the  fountain 
of  all  moral  laws.     Immense  and  manifold  were  the  bless- 
ings which  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  the  Church  bestowed 
on  mankind.     In  its  basic  idea  rooted  in  democracy  and  in 
its  organization  purely  intellectual,  the  Church  was  well 
equipped  to  repel  the  spirit  of  anarchism  and  to  direct  the 
creation  of  a  new  social  order,  on  wliich  it  impressed  Chris- 
tianity in  the  manner  adapted  to  the  spiritual,  moral,  and 
intellectual  life  of  the  converted  peoples  and  the  economic 
and  political  exigencies  of  the  times.     During  the  long  and 
always   violent   process   of   reorganization   of   society   the 
Church  upheld,  as  an  article  of  faith  and  doctrine,  the 
spiritual  equality  of  man,  and,  therefore,  was  a  true  guard- 
ian of  the  masses  and  saved  mankind  from  a  relapse  into 
the  rigor  and  inhumanity  of  castes. 

So  long  as  the  Latin  church  was  filled  with  the  apostolic 
spirit  and  therefore  preserved  in  its  organism  and  gov- 
ernment the  democratic  spirit  descendant  from  the  earliest 
Christians,  so  long  did  it  retain  its  hold  on  the  Teutonic 
nations.  The  spiritual  democracy  of  Christianity  had 
blended  easily  with  the  social  and  political  democracy  of 
the  Teuton  tribes.  The  causal  relations  of  these  agencies 
not  only  promoted  the  conversion  of  the  Teutons  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  also  tended  to  make  them  the  most  devoted 
and  zealous  defenders  of  the  Church,  and  engendered  that 
deep  and  sincere  religious  feeling  which  outlived  centuries 
of  spiritual  darkness  and  blasphemy. 

The  dissolution  of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne  marked  the 
period  of  the  highest  spiritual  attainments  of  the  Latin 
church.  Until  then  it  fulfilled  its  apostolate.  It  had 
planted  the  Christian  faith  in  the  hearts  of  a  people  des- 
tined to  be  the  standard  bearer  of  a  new  civilization  and 
withal  the  one  best  qualified  to  assimilate  and  spread  Chris- 
tian truths  and  fully  to  evolve  and  exert  their  humanizing 
agencies. 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE  7 

SECTION   IV 

The  Political  Papacy.  With  the  dismemberment  of  the 
empire  of  Charlemagne,  the  consolidation  and  growth  of 
the  Latin  nations,  and  the  acquisition  of  the  Patrimonium 
Petri  the  political  Papacy  came  into  being.  From  the  date 
that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  became  an  independent  sovereign 
of  a  temporality,  the  Church's  discipline  and  government, 
and  with  it  the  spirit  animating  it,  underwent  a  funda- 
mental change.  The  Latin  hierarchy  ceased  to  be  a  demo- 
cratic body,  and  the  ecumenical  council  to  be  the  sole  and 
supreme  authority  in  matters  of  faith  and  church  govern- 
ment. 

Until  the  birth  of  the  political  Papacy  as  a  co-ordinate 
power  of  the  temporal  authorities,  the  Church's  relations 
to  Christendom  had  been  that  of  a  mother  to  her  flock.  A 
mother's  intellectual  and  spiritual  being  grows  with  the 
mental  faculties  and  spiritual  development  of  her  children. 
She  is  their  counsellor  and  their  guide  unto  the  grave, 
and  even  after  death,  she  commands  their  love.  Her  in- 
fluence is  eternal  because  she  transmits  it  to  the  mothers 
of  coming  generations.  A  father's  influence  commonly 
ceases  whenever  his  offspring  arrive  at  maturity  of  judg- 
ment. It  is  the  law  of  evolution  that  every  generation 
accepts  as  a  matter  of  right  and  therefore,  without  grati- 
tude, the  achievements  of  the  preceding  one.  Maternal 
love  alone  is  without  end.  It  is  unchangeable  and  true. 
When  the  Church,  through  its  subordination  to  the  Papacy, 
adopted  the  harsh  treatment  of  a  father,  it  severed  the 
tender  ties  of  maternal  and  filial  love. 

While  the  kings  of  Germany  exercised  an  authoritative  in- 
fluence over  the  election  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  Papacy 
could  not  relieve  itself  from  worldly  responsibility;  nor 
could  it  claim  supreme  political  authority  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  Deity.  With  the  assumption  of  Metropolitan 
functions  as  the  pretended  successors  of  St.  Peter,  the 
Bishops  of  Rome  claimed  ecclesiastical  supremacy  over  the 
Christian  church.  After  the  acquisition  of  the  Patrimon- 
ium Petri  this  claim  was  gradually  enlarged  to  the  spiritual 
and  temporal  supremacy  over  the  rulers  and  nations  of  the 
earth.  From  the  historical  event  of  that  German  emper- 
or's supplication  in  the  court-yard  of  Canossa  to  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  dogma  of  the  Papal  infallibility,  the  Papacy 
ever  sought  as  its  one  goal  the  establishment  of  a  uni- 


8  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

versal  tliooeracy  in  which  liis  Holiness  the  Pope  was  to  be 
worsliiped  as  the  plenary  representative  of  Jehovah  and 
his  ablegates  as  national  demif^ods. 

To  gain  its  objective  point  the  Papacy  organized  the  most 
wonderful  and  tlie  most  dangerous  ecclesiastical  and  po- 
litical machine  the  world  has  ever  beheld.  Despotism  and 
absolutism,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  temporal,  arc  sup- 
ported by  mercenaries  who  have  nothing  in  common  with 
the  peoples  wliom  they  keep  in  subjugation  or  superstition. 
Universal  theocracy  is  not  possible  with  a  priesthood  bound 
by  tender  ties  to  the  peoples  and  inter-dependent  thereof. 
The  very  being  of  the  married  priest  as  the  father  of  a 
family  is  rooted  in  the  society  and  nation  of  which  his 
family  is  a  part  and  to  which  it  owes  allegiance.  With 
the  enforcement  of  celibacy  the  Papacy  completed  its  theo- 
cratic structure,  and  thence  it  became  a  menace  to  man- 
kind, to  the  peace  of  nations  and  of  families,  a  fountain 
of  corruption  and  of  superstition,  a  barrier  to  the  progress 
of  the  human  race,  and  a  living  negation  of  the  teachings 
of  Christ.  The  Latin  church  ceased  to  be  Christian  in 
spirit  and  in  its  organization  and  changed  into  an  ecclesi- 
astical— social — political  machine,  into  a  Tammany  Hall, 
an  organism  of  gigantic  proportions  for  the  spoliation  of 
Christendom  and  the  aggrandizement  of  a  new  Pontifex 
Maximus  and  of  his  court,  known  as  the  Papal  camarilla, 
an  ecclesiastical  body  in  its  character  denationalized,  yet 
not  cosmopolitan,  frigid  and  paganized,  irresponsible  and 
perpetual.  Romanism  2vas  horn.  The  Papal  Bull  decree- 
ing celihacy  covered  humanity  ivith  a  dismal  shadow  now 
slowly  creeping  also  over  our  land. 

SECTION   v 

The  Teutons,  the  Latin  Church,  and  Celibacy.  The 
social  order  of  the  Teutonic  race  rooted  in  the  family,  their 
moral  code  drew  its  inspiration  from  the  family,  their  na- 
tionality had  been  evolved  from  the  family.  With  their 
conversion  to  Christianity  the  family,  as  a  social  and  po- 
litical institution,  or  unit,  was  given  a  divine  character, 
and  their  national  life  shaped  into  being.  Before,  the 
Germanic  tribes  had  but  the  cohesion  of  common  descent 
and  of  material  desires;  but  now  the  humane  in  Christian- 
ity became  the  binding  element  in  their  national  existence. 
When,  therefore,  the  Roman  church  removed  its  represen- 


EXPITLSTON  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE  9 

tatives  from  the  influences  of  the  family,  and  that  of  the 
nation,  and  set  up  a  deformity  in  the  theocratic  priesthood, 
it  ran  counter  to  the  ethics  of  the  Teutonic  peoples,  to 
their  conception  of  the  manifest  truths  of  Christianity  and 
to  their  evangelical  faith. 

The  tribes  of  Judea  were  bound  too^ether  in  their  faith. 
So  were  the  Teutonic  tribes  welded  into  nations  through 
their  faith  in  Christ  which  to  them  was  inseparable 
from  every  phase  of  their  existence  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave.  The  national  life  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  had  its 
source  in  Christ,  therefore  their  religious  desires  were 
clothed  in  a  national  garb  and  altogether  interwoven  with 
their  national  life.  The  social  and  political  precepts  of 
morality  of  the  Teutonic  race  were  identical  with  the  ethics 
of  Christianity  and  were  not  the  outgrowth  of  the  rules 
and  formalities  of  an  established  church.  Therefore  when 
the  Roman  church  established  rules  and  created  condi- 
tions, in  spirit  and  in  application  not  in  accord  with  the 
moral  code  and  social  order  of  the  Teutonic  race  and  pro- 
claimed as  matters  of  faith  that  which  was  foreign  to  Chris- 
tian ethics,  the  church  ceased  to  be  the  keeper  of  the 
conscience  of  the  Germanic  nations.  The  institution  of 
celibacy  called  forth  the  Reformation ;  with  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  dogma  of  infallibility  a  struggle  commenced 
which  will  close  either  with  the  downfall  of  Papacy  or  with 
the  annihilation  of  the  German  and  Anglo-Saxon  nations. 

SECTION    VI 

Pontifex  Maximus.  For  centuries  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
was  only  the  equal  of  his  brethren  in  episcopal  office.  The 
schism  in  the  Church,  Pepin's  gift  of  the  Patrimonium 
Petri,  and  later  on  the  fatal  desire  of  the  kings  of  Ger- 
many to  be  crowned  successors  of  the  Roman  Ca?sars  at- 
tached to  the  Bishopric  of  Rome  a  political  importance 
which  ultimately  led  to  the  usurpation  of  supreme  ecclesi- 
astical authority.  The  kings  of  Germany  claiming  and 
for  centuries  exercising  the  right  of  investiture  of  the 
Bishopric  of  Rome  thought  it  politic  to  favor  this  process 
of  ecclesiastical  aggrandizement.  Judged  by  the  experience 
of  a  thousand  years,  their  policy  was  a  fatal  error. 

At  a  time  when  peoples  emerged  from  barbarism,  when 
the  educated  were  few,  the  masses  unable  to  reason,  the 
belief  in  tiie  supernatural  was  general  and  all  the  avenues 


10  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

leading  to  intelligence  in  possession  of  the  priesthood, 
sueh  a  policy  could  have;  only  the  one  result — to  subordinate 
the  temporal  powers  to  the  spiritual.  Directing  the  con- 
science of  the  superstitious  and  ignorant  masses,  whose  only 
excuse  for  existence  lay  in  the  promise  of  recompense  in  the 
hereafter,  the  fulfilment  of  which  rested  with  the  priests, 
they,  of  course,  as  the  representatives  of  the  Deity,  could 
be  counted  upon  also  to  direct  the  political  affairs  of  the 
communities,  in  which  the  government  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  society  were  held  to  be  of  divine  origin.  A  priest- 
hood living  in  celibacy  and  gathered  into  a  caste  absolutely 
dependent  on  a  supreme  ecclesiastical  authority,  will  not 
alone  exploit  the  political  but  also  the  material  interests 
of  the  people  for  the  benefit  of  that  authority.  Thus  a 
state  within  a  state  is  created.  Eventually  one  will  control 
the  other  or  become  a  coordinate  power,  inasmuch  as  the 
ruling  classes,  to  preserve  their  privileges  and  to  continue 
the  exploitation  of  the  governed,  are  more  or  less  dependent 
on  the  priesthood  to  keep  the  masses  superstitious,  ignorant 
and  submissive,  and  thus  economically  and  politically  de- 
pendent. 

A  political  motive  of  vital  importance  to  the  welfare  and 
unity  of  Germany  excited  the  ambition  of  her  kings  to  be 
crowned  Emperors  of  Rome.  When  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
laid  claim  to  the  succession  to  the  apostolate  of  St.  Peter, 
inferentially  he  also  laid  claim  to  the  succession  to  the 
temporal  powers  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus.  Therefore  it 
became  a  necessity  with  the  German  kings,  if  they  were  to 
retain  their  authority  within  their  own  realm,  to  dispute 
the  Pontifical  claim  and  to  explode  it  by  enforcing  their 
investment  by  the  claimant  with  the  insignia  of  the  Csesars. 
Controlling  the  conscience  of  the  Christian  world  and  a 
numerous  dependent  priesthood  in  the  opponent's  camp, 
the  struggle  between  the  Papacy  commanding  these  ad- 
vantages, and  royalty,  wielding  only  scepter  and  sword, 
closed  with  the  discomfiture  of  the  kings.-  Thenceforth, 
the  Popes  as  the  vicars  of  Christ,  claimed  not  only  spiritual 
supremacy  over  Christendom  hut  also  the  custodianship  of 
the  moral  and  political  conscience  of  the  world.  On  this 
assumption  the  Papacy  and  the  entire  structure  of  the 
Boman  church  are  reared.  On  this  assumption  it  rests 
to-day  and,  likewise,  the  Papal  policy  of  Non  Possumus. 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE  11 

SECTION   VII 

The  Papal  Camarilla.  When  the  Roman  church  made 
the  Pope  another  Pontifex  Maximus,  it  ceased  to  be  evan- 
gelical and  was  transformed  into  a  baptized  paganism,  it 
ceased  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  spiritual  desires,  the  in- 
born morality  and  cultural  life  of  the  Teutonic  race  and, 
therefore,  with  their  political  life.  It  continued,  the  while, 
to  be  in  agreement  with  the  racial  qualities  of  the  Latin 
nations,  who  during  the  long  period  of  their  political  forma- 
tion and  consolidation  had  preserved  the  traditions  and 
moral  and  political  precepts  of  pagan  and  imperial  Rome. 

The  transformation  of  the  Latin  church  into  Romanism 
made  unavoidable  the  strife  for  the  political  mastery  be- 
tween the  peoples  of  the  Teutonic  race  on  the  one  side 
and  the  Papacy  and  the  nations  of  the  Latin  race  on  the 
other.  Ever  present  and  of  centuries'  duration,  under  one 
form  or  another,  this  conflict  has  been  maintained  to  our 
times,  and  in  the  nearest  future  may  become  irrepressible 
on  American  soil.  It  has  been  marked  on  the  tablets  of 
history  with  the  tragic  fate  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  the 
execution  of  its  youthful  scion  Conradin,  the  mediaeval 
crusades,  the  Reformation,  the  horrid  butcheries  of  Philip 
II  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands,  the  emigra- 
tion of  the  Pilgrims,  the  execution  of  Maria  Stuart  and 
Charles  I,  the  English  revolution,  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  the  assassination  of  Henry  IV,  the  revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  Thirty-years'  and  the 
Seven-years'  wars,  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  Water- 
loo and  Sedan.  It  has  been  marked  with  millions  of 
graves,  with  the  ruins  of  cities,  with  devastation  and  pesti- 
lence and  nameless  cruelties  in  many  countries.  May  the 
ominous  cloud  now  rising  on  our  political  firmament  pass 
away  without  bringing  to  us  all  manner  of  woe ! 

From  Canossa  to  Wittenberg  the  Papacy  triumphed  over 
the  genius  of  the  Teutonic  race,  causing  infinite  misery  to 
the  Christian  peoples.  Like  a  poisonous  vapor  it  spread  its 
immorality  over  the  civilized  world,  and  under  its  universal 
theocratic  despotism  the  light  of  Nazareth  was  nearly 
extinguished. 

To  divert  the  attention  of  the  peoples  from  its  designs 
on  their  conscience  and  rights,  more  easily  to  prevail  over 


12  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  martial  political  powers,  and  to  compel  the  Eastern 
clnirch  to  submit  to  its  yoke,  the  Papacy  imposed  on 
Christianity  the  crusades  and  thus  caused  the  wanton 
slaughter  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  Hower  of  Christ- 
endom and  tlie  counter  invasion  of  Europe  by  the  Turks  and 
the  fall  of  Constantinople.  To  sap  the  military  and  thus 
the  aggressive  powers  of  the  worldly  rulers  and  force 
them  into  submission  the  Papacy  favored  the  feudal  system 
and  the  disruption  of  nations  whereby  the  masses  were  en- 
slaved and  reduced  to  the  level  of  the  beasts  of  burden ; 
it  in\ated  rebellion  and  assassination;  it  commended  per- 
jury, rebellion,  and  anarchy,  relieving  individuals  and 
nations  of  tlieir  oaths  of  allegiance.  It  urged  upon  the 
heathen  to  war  upon  Christian  neighbors,  it  fostered  ignor- 
ance, superstition  and  blasphemy  to  increase  the  Church's 
temporalities  and  riches;  its  rapacity  knew  no  bounds; 
it  sold  indulgences  for  crimes  committed  and  to  be 
committed,  and  its  general  policy  was  so  atrocious  that 
nothing  in  history  approaches  it — all  these  ad  majorem  Dei 
gloriam,  that  is,  ostensibly  "to  the  greater  Glory  of  God" 
but  in  verity  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  power  and  riches  of  the 
Koman  camarilla.  Towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, the  Papal  court  and  clergy  had  sunk  down  to  the 
lowest  depth  of  moral  depravity.  Octopus-like  the  cama- 
rilla had  embraced  with  its  slimy  arms  the  civilized  world 
and  drained  the  nations  of  their  life-blood.  It  had  steeped 
the  body  politic  in  superstition  and  corruption,  misery  and 
poverty,  it  had  blighted  and  nearly  destroyed  the  spiritual 
life  of  nations  and  covered  the  Church  of  the  Apostles  with 
the  mold  of  paganism. 

SECTION   VIII 

The  Reformation  Foreshadowed.  History  teaches  that 
every  evil  bears  within  itself  the  germ  of  rectification.  Out 
of  tile  sins  of  the  Roman  camarilla  the  Reformation  was 
born.  The  Crusades  brought  to  western  Europe  the  higher 
civilization  of  the  Orient  and  the  literary  treasures  of  an- 
cient Greece  and  Rome.  They  were  the  cause  of  a  new 
epoch  in  literature  and  research.  Universities  were  es- 
tablished and  from  these  gradually  a  new  spiritual  life 
spread  over  the  Christian  world. 

During  the  fourteenth  century  royalty  in  France  had 
achieved  the  mastery  over  the  feudal  lords  and  reduced 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     13 

the  Papal  power  to  a  coordinate  position  and  the  French 
hierarchy  to  dependency  in  matters  temporal.  The  French 
kings  as  the  foremost  representatives  of  the  Latin  race, 
were  reaching  out  for  the  inheritance  of  Charlemagne. 
They  were,  therefore,  deeply  interested  in  the  stability  of 
the  Papacy  and  its  ability  to  continue  the  policy  of  sapping 
or  usurping  the  political  power  of  Germany  and  of  con- 
fining that  of  England.  They  clearly  perceived  that  in  its 
demoralized  condition  the  Church  was  threatened  with  per- 
petual schism  and  the  Papacy  menaced  in  its  very  exist- 
ence. Under  the  prevailing  political  conditions  a  split  in 
the  Church  most  probably  would  lead  to  the  establishment 
of  national  churches  and  thus  deprive  France  of  all  the 
political  benefits  arising  from  her  close  relations  with  the 
Papacy.  Moreover,  the  anarchical  condition  of  society 
alarmed  the  privileged  classes  of  all  nations  as  to  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  consequences  of  a  religious  upheaval  which 
in  all  probability  could  not  be  confined  to  matters  spiritual. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris,  then  the  foremost  educational  institution 
in  Europe  and  cosmopolitan  in  its  character,  assailed  the 
Papacy  and  hierarchy  and  the  corruption  and  pagan  out- 
growth of  the  Church,  not  in  a  reformatory  spirit  but  as  a 
matter  of  state  policy  and  in  the  interests  of  the  ruling 
classes.  The  agitation  for  Church  reform  spread  over  Eu- 
rope. The  reformatory  movements  of  Wickliffe  and  Huss 
impressed  the  worldly  powers  and  many  members  of  the 
hierarchy  with  the  necessity  of  immediate  reformatory  ac- 
tion. When,  therefore,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  three  Popes,  of  whom  one,  Balthasar  Co^sa,  had 
been  a  pirate  before  his  elevation  to  the  Vicarship  of 
Christ,  claimed  simultaneously  the  succession  of  St.  Peter, 
the  council  of  Constance  was  called. 

SECTION   IX 

John  Wickliffe,  England  and  Rome.  In  the  fourteenth 
century  John  Wickliffe  of  Oxford  preached  the  doctrine  of 
predestination,  which  in  its  conception  and  deductions  is 
negatory  of  priestly  intervention  in  the  relations  of  man 
to  his  Creator,  and  therefore  of  theocracy.  In  his  de- 
nunciation of  the  Roman  Church  as  the  "synagogue  of  the 
devil"  and  of  the  Papacy  as  an  abomination,  Wickliffe  dis- 
closed the  political  or  rather  racial  aims  of  his  reformatory 


14  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

movement,  the  first  of  a  religious-political  character  fore- 
shadowing the  Reformation. 

AVic'kliffe's  movement  fixed  a  period  in  the  ^owth  of 
England's  national  life  during  which  the  Norman  was 
slowly  to  retire  and  the  Saxon  destined  to  rule.  When 
William  the  Conqueror  supplanted  the  social  order  of  the 
Saxons  with  the  Gallic  system  of  feudalism  and  with  the 
autocratic  government  of  the  Latin  race,  the  ship  of  state 
immediately  drifted  into  a  channel  made  tumultuous  by 
two  opposing  tides:  the  spirit  of  Norman  baronism  or 
feudalism  on  one  side  and  the  spirit  of  Saxon  freedom  on 
the  other.  The  marriage  of  Henry  I,  son  of  the  Conqueror, 
to  Ethel,  the  Saxon  descendant  of  Alfred,  saved  England 
from  a  war  of  races  and  from  anarchy  and  led  to  the 
growth  of  a  social-political  system  which  united  the  con- 
servative properties  and  economic  advantages  of  feudalism 
with  the  democratic  institutions  of  the  Saxons.  On  this 
amalgamation  rests  England's  political,  industrial  and  com- 
mercial greatness  and  the  character  of  the  Anglican  church. 

The  Saxon  spirit  forced  Henry  II  to  decree  that  all  men 
should  be  equal  before  the  law.  The  revolt  of  the  barons 
under  the  government  of  Henry  III  against  the  autocratic 
power  of  the  crown  was  a  covert  attempt  at  feudalism  for 
supremacy.  During  the  civil  war  which  followed  the 
abridgment  of  the  royal  prerogatives,  part  of  which  had 
been  delegated  to  a  committee  of  bishops  and  barons,  the 
Saxon  spirit  prevailed  in  the  calling  of  a  Parliament,  in 
which,  for  the  first  time,  representatives  of  the  people, — 
knights,  citizens,  and  burghers, — sat  and  deliberated  with 
the  barons,  bishops  and  abbots.  When  Edward  I  affixed 
his  signature  to  the  statute  of  the  confirmation  of  the  chart- 
ers, constitutional  government  was  born,  because  the  statute 
provided  that  the  Commons  of  England  alone  were  to  raise 
the  supplies  which  should  sustain  the  crown.  This  sig- 
nature also  made  unavoidable  the  separation  from  theocratic 
Rome.     After  this  it  was  only  a  question  of  time. 

From  the  marriage  of  Henry  I  to  Ethel  until  Edward's 
renunciation  of  autocratic  power,  from  the  promulgation 
of  the  Papal  Bull  which  condemned  the  Magna  Charta  to 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  by  Wickliffe  and  his  denuncia- 
tion of  Romanism,  four  centuries,  the  struggle  had 
lasted  between  theocracy  and  the  moral  forces  of  the 
Teutonic  race,  between  the  Norman  spirit  of  conquest  and 


EXPULSION  OF  ITIE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE  15 

despotism  and  the  spirit  and  power  as  well  as  the  memory 
of  the  ancient  Witena-gemot,  the  Saxon  representative 
body  which  had  elected  kings  and  in  which  the  Saxon's 
reverence  for  law  had  its  source.  "With  the  dethronement 
of  Richard  II  by  Parliament,  the  Teuton  doctrines  of  self- 
government  and  of  the  right  to  revolution  were  reestab- 
lished and  the  Anglo-Saxon  had  triumphed.  Under  Crom- 
well and  the  Pilgrims  these  doctrines  were  made  precepts  of 
religion. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  enlarged  Parliament  was  the 
inhibition  of  the  payment  of  the  royal  and  state  tributes  to 
the  Papal  court.  Though  in  England  the  Church  had  not 
possessed  itself  of  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  land  as  in 
Germany  and  other  countries,  it  being  more  equally  divided 
between  the  ecclesiastics  and  the  Norman  Conquerors,  yet, 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  land  question  became  of  vital 
importance  to  the  Saxon  burghers  and  yeomanry  and  to 
the  crown.  Therefore,  excesses  against  the  property  of  the 
Church  were  ignored  by  the  crown  and  lightly  punished. 
Wickliffeism  might  already  then  have  led  to  the  separation 
from  Rome  and  to  the  etablishment  of  a  National  Church 
but  for  the  political  necessities  of  Henry  IV  and  Henry  V 
which  enforced  a  reactionary  policy  in  church  matters  and 
the  persecution  of  Wickliffeism.  Moreover,  the  art  of 
printing  had  not  been  discovered,  and  the  translated  Bible 
was  a  priceless  treasure  in  the  hands  of  the  few.  Yet,  as 
soon  as  it  became  the  common  possession  of  the  people,  the 
indomitable  spirit  of  Saxon  liberty  threw  off  the  incubus 
of  Papacy  which  weighed  most  heavily  on  the  conscience 
and  resources  of  the  nation ;  it  threw  off  the  most  execrable 
and  ruthless  tyrant — theocracy. 

SECTION  X 

John  Huss  and  his  Religious-Political  Movement.    The 

reformatory  movement  of  John  Huss  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  though  also  of  a  religious  charac- 
ter, was  essentially  an  attempt  at  national  independence. 
Like  Wickliffe  he  was  moved  by  the  democratic  spirit  of 
the  primitive  church  in  his  assaults  on  Rome.  While  his 
religious  convictions  did  not  reach  the  breadth  and  depth 
of  those  of  his  predecessor,  in  his  social  and  political  de- 
ductions from  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  which  he 
also  held,  Huss  went  far  beyond  the  English  reformer. 


16  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Tliey  were,  considering  the  times,  of  a  revolutionary  char- 
acter. I<^rom  this  doctrine  Huss  deducted  the  political 
axiom  that  the  people  were  not  bound  to  obey  popes  and 
kings  and  persons  in  authority  who  had  committed  mor- 
tal sin,  that  is,  he  denied  entirely  the  church  doctrine  of 
the  divine  order  of  ecclesiastical  and  secular  government. 

At  that  time,  when  the  masses  were  all  together  unfitted 
for  self-government  or  to  take  any  part  in  the  direction 
of  affairs,  the  practical  application  of  this  axiom  would 
have  led  to  anarchy  and  barbarism.  For  these  reasons 
IIuss'  movement  encountered  not  only  the  opposition  of 
the  clergy  and  upper  classes,  but  also  that  of  the  learned 
and  cultured  of  all  Europe,  and  caused  twenty  thousand 
students  to  leave  the  University  of  Prague,  next  to  that 
of  Paris,  the  most  important  educational  institution  in  the 
Christian  world  of  that  da3^ 

Brought  up  in  the  most  ascetic  manner  and  deeply  im- 
bued with  patriotic  principles,  Huss  combined  in  his  per- 
sonality the  qualities  of  the  fanatic  and  partisan.  While 
he  assailed  the  Church  he  also  attempted  to  establish  the 
political  supremacy  of  his  race — the  Czechs  who,  in  tiieir 
racial  character  had  and  to-day  have,  much  in  common  with 
the  Irish,  and  were  then  only  emerging  from  barbarism  and 
were  held  in  subjugation  by  their  conquerors,  the  Germans. 
Of  an  inferior  race  and,  before  the  conquest,  from  time  im- 
memorial the  slaves  of  feudal  lords,  the  Czechs,  as  a  people, 
were  not  fitted  to  assimilate  the  humane  with  their  gross, 
treacherous  and  superstitious  nature  and  therefore  were 
not  qualified  to  become  the  standard-bearers  of  an  ecclesi- 
astical or  political  reformation.  The  success  of  Huss' 
movement  would  have  built  up  a  theocracy  entirely  de- 
void of  humanity,  barbaric  and  despotic  in  its  character 
and  destructive  to  the  spirit  of  progress  which  then  com- 
menced to  spread  from  the  universities  and  which  alone  a 
century  later  made  the  Reformation  possible.  The  enor- 
mous fruition  of  Greek  thought  in  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  European  world  might  have  been  nipped  in  the  bud. 

SECTION   XI 

The  Council  of  Constance  and  the  Hohenzollern.  All 
things  considered,  at  the  dawn  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
the  Emperor  of  Germany  as  King  of  Bohemia,  the  kings 
of  France  and  England  and  society  generally  were  deeply 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     17 

interested  in  the  reformation  of  the  Church.  Their  united 
efforts  resulted  in  the  calling  of  a  general  council  of  the 
Church,  that  of  Constance. 

This,  the  largest,  most  splendid  and  numerously  at- 
tended council  of  the  Roman  Church,  deposed  two  rival 
Popes,  charged  with  and  convicted  of  the  most  heinous 
crimes,  and  recognized  as  the  true  Vicar  of  Christ  Alex- 
ander V,  of  whom  Catholic  historians  have  said,  that  he 
was  the  greatest  rascal  of  the  times.  The  Council  con- 
demned the  heresies  of  Huss  and  Wickliffe.  It  decreed 
the  execution  of  the  one  and  the  disinterment  of  the  other 
and  the  cremation  of  his  remains.  Otherwise,  the  Council 
accomplished  nothing.  The  time,  as  yet,  was  not  ripe  for 
the  great  religious,  economic  and  social  upheaval,  the  Refor- 
mation. 

Nevertheless  fate  willed  it  that  the  Council  of  Constance 
should  be  the  cause  of  the  downfall  of  the  Papacy;  that 
Papal  depravity  which  necessitated  its  calling,  should  also 
necessitate  the  mortgaging  of  a  German  province — the 
]\Iark  Brandenburg  of  which  Berlin  is  the  Capital — by 
Emperor  Sigismund  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  Council. 
Count  Hohenzoller,  Burggraf  of  Nuremberg,  advanced  one 
hundred  thousand  gold  florins  and  took  possession  of  the 
"Mark"  because  the  Emperor  could  not  redeem  it. 

Thus  the  house  of  Hohenzollern,  until  then  of  political 
insignificance,  entered  into  German  and  European  politics 
and  into  history. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Reformation 

section  i 

Papal  Depravity,  Anarchy  and  Despair.  During  the 
fifteenth  century  an  overpowering,  mysterious  feeling  pre- 
vailed among  the  German  people  of  a  portentous  catas- 
trophe which  in  the  near  future  was  to  overwhelm  society. 
This  feeling  became  stronger  as  the  religious,  social  and 
political  conditions  grew  more  and  more  intolerable. 

The  ever  recurring  evils  brought  upon  the  people  by  the 
debasement  and  rapacity  of  the  Papal  camarilla  and  of  the 
hierarchy,  the  incessant  friction  between  almost  independ- 
ent communities  and  feudal  lords,  the  cruel  despotism  of 
the  hundreds  of  more  or  less  sovereign  rulers  of  the  prin- 
cipalities and  temporalities  which  divided  Germany,  the 
ever  declining  power  of  the  Emperor,  the  anarchical  condi- 
tion of  the  empire,  the  depression  of  trade  and  industry 
harassed  by  constant  warfare,  the  indescribably  miserable 
condition  of  the  serfs  brutalized  by  centuries  of  oppression, 
and  the  retrograde  morals  of  society  corrupted  by  Rome, 
had  aroused  a  longing  for  a  deliverer  to  so  high  a  pitch 
that  any  intensely  patriotic  individual  imbued  with  moral 
courage  and  the  ethics  of  his  race,  and  of  the  warrior  or 
learned  estate,  might  inspire  the  nation  with  the  fervor 
of  religious  and  political  revolution.  This  ardent  longing 
for  a  deliverer,  and  the  belief  in  his  early  advent,  swayed 
all  classes  of  the  people  except  the  princes  and  those  who 
clung  to  Rome.  The  patriotic  legends  of  the  reappearance 
of  Emperor  Barbarossa,  the  great  "Hohenstaufen"  and 
implacable  foe  of  Rome,  gave  expression  to  this  longing 
for  a  deliverer  and  to  the  conviction,  deeply  imbedded  in 
the  nation's  soul,  that  the  practices  of  the  Papacy  were  at 
the  bottom  of  Germany's  misfortunes. 

With  the  dissolution  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  the 
last  hope  of  a  reformation  of  the  Church  from  within  had 
vanished.     It  had  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  hier- 

18 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     19 

arehy  and  the  governing  classes  were  opposed  to  all  meas- 
ures of  a  progressive  nature  adversely  affecting  their 
interests  or  curtailing  their  privileges.  The  Council  of 
Constance  further  demonstrated  the  impotency  and  immo- 
bility of  the  imperial  government,  the  sloth,  selfishness, 
and  venality  of  the  princes  temporal,  the  pro-Romanism 
and  disloyalty  of  the  princes  spiritual,  and  laid  bare  in 
all  their  hideousness  the  paganism,  corruption,  simony,  and 
immorality  of  the  Papacy  and  hierarchy.  It  had  become 
evident  that  the  Church  and  State  were  past  the  possibil- 
ity of  peaceful  reformation,  and  that  society,  so  far  as  it 
included  the  upper  classes,  was  inwardly  beset  with  in- 
curable ills,  and  that  its  dissolution  was  merely  a  question 
of  time. 

SECTION  II 

The    Bible,    the    German    Empire,    Universities    and 

Priests.  The  century  following  the  Council  of  Constance 
was  marked  by  events  destined  to  become  decisive  factors 
in  the  advancement  of  the  human  race,  effecting  such  a 
change  in  the  intellectual  and  economic  relations  of  all 
classes  to  each  other  and  to  the  body  politic  that  the 
most  profound  thinkers  of  the  times  devoted  their  thoughts 
to  a  spiritual,  political,  and  economic  reorganization  of 
society.  This  threefold  movement  was  clothed  in  a 
religious  garb  and  drew  its  inspiration  from  the  Bible  be- 
cause at  the  time  all  things  were  thought  to  be  of  Divine 
origin,  and  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing  had  just 
then  made  the  Bible  generally  available  for  research. 
Moreover,  through  Gutenberg's  invention,  the  light  of 
reason  and  the  thoughts  of  philosophers,  for  centuries  con- 
fined within  the  walls  of  monasteries  and  universities, 
were  spread  and  transplanted  into  every-day  life.  From 
cloister-shades  and  the  universities  the  study  of  the  an- 
cient Greek  literature  and,  therefore,  a  new  spiritual  life 
was  spreading  over  the  Christian  world. 

As  the  excessively  large  number  of  students  by  the 
tens  of  thousands  croM^ding  the  seats  of  learning  had  al- 
ready produced  a  body  of  learned  proletarians  who  found 
no  proper  lodgment  in  the  social  scale,  these  naturally 
became  hostile  to  the  existing  order  and  ever  ready  to 
further  a  reorganization  of  society.  These  learned  prole- 
tarians— with  few  exceptions  clerks, — were  the  tramps  of 


20  CASSOCK  AND  RWORD 

their  times.  Singly  and  in  f,'roiips,  wandering  from  place 
to  place,  they  were  fanning  the  embers  of  discontent  among 
the  middle  class,  and,  with  tlie  masses,  they  nndermined 
all  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  authority.  In  addition  to 
these  bearers  of  prophetic  warnings  of  a  coming  deluge, 
thousands  of  priests  and  monks  hoped  for  a  thorough,  even 
revolutionary  change  in  matters  ecclesiastical  and  politi- 
cal. Of  all  countries,  Germany  was  the  most  Romanized 
and  priest-ridden,  the  one  suffering  most  from  the  ex- 
crescences of  the  Koman  church.  The  Papacy  had  a  larger 
and  stronger  hold  on  Germany  than  on  any  other  country 
because  the  German  hierarchy  was  clothed  with  temporal 
authority  and  possessed  political  privileges  and  preroga- 
tives which  subjected  the  imperial  government  and  the 
national  legislature  to  Papal  intervention. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  the  government  of  Ger- 
many consisted  of  a  King  elected  by  certain  princes  spir- 
itual and  temporal,  called  princely  electors — Churfuersten 
— and  a  parliament,  in  which  all  the  rulers  of  principali- 
ties, the  higher  nobility,  and  the  free  cities  were  repre- 
sented. A  number  of  bishops  and  arch-bishops  whose  sees 
included  temporal  sovereignties,  were  members  of  the  elec- 
toral college  and  also,  with  many  of  their  episcopal  breth- 
ren, abbots  and  priors,  seated  in  parliament.  The  German 
ecclesiastics,  therefore,  constituted  an  important  faction  of 
the  national  legislature,  the  more  so,  because  the  mode 
of  voting  was  by  estates.  The  richest  and  most  fertile 
provinces  of  Germany,  including  many  of  the  largest  cities, 
were  under  ecclesiastical  rule.  The  ecclesiastical  authority 
of  these  spiritual  princes  extending  over  the  domains  of 
their  worldly  neighbors,  part  of  their  revenues  were  turned 
as  fees  and  tithes  into  the  pockets  of  the  former.  With 
the  decline  of  the  royal  or  imperial  power  and  the  growth 
of  the  abuses  within  the  Church,  the  large  benefices,  bish- 
oprics, and  archbishoprics,  including  the  electorates,  were 
sold  by  the  Papal  camarilla  to  the  highest  bidder,  to  the 
scions  of  the  higher  aristocracy,  to  adventurers  and  charla- 
tans whose  fortunes  were  often  the  harvest  of  a  criminal 
or  shady  career.  Thus  the  knavish,  immoral  and  ignorant, 
often  without  priestly  orders,  were  made  princes,  bishops 
and  abbots  of  the  Church,  and  electors  and  members  of 
parliament.  As  an  example  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
prince-bishop    of   Prague,    the   one    who   excommunicated 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     21 

IIuss,  at  the  investiture  was  unable  to  read  and  write.  To 
the  credit  of  this  prince  of  the  Church  it  must  be  said  that 
he  had  almost  mastered  the  rudiments  of  learning,  when  he 
sat  in  judgment  over  the  great  heretic. 

During  centuries  of  Roman  corruption,  the  lower  clergy 
in  Germany  had  to  a  degree  retained  the  diginity  of  their 
calling  and  preserved  the  national  traditions  and  virtues. 
When,  therefore,  with  the  introduction  of  Greek  thought 
and  the  study  of  ancient  history  a  new  intellectual  life  was 
manifesting  itself,  the  German  lower  clergy,  cut  off  from 
all  advancement  in  their  holy  calling  by  the  simony  of 
the  Papal  camarilla,  rebelled  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
German  hierarchy,  its  pro-Romanism  in  all  matters  tem- 
poral, and  its  subserviency  to  the  interests  of  the  Latin  na- 
tions in  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  sinister  designs  of 
France  and  Spain.  The  lower  clergy  were  of  the  middle 
class  and  well  qualified  to  judge  correctly  of  their  country's 
need.  The  priests  traced  the  political  impotency  of  the 
imperial  government,  all  the  curses  of  parliamentar- 
ism which  had  built  up  the  overbearing  insolence  of  the 
Papacy,  the  everlasting  feuds  of  particularistic  cliques 
and  estates,  the  anarchical  condition  of  the  empire,  and 
the  foreign  intervention  in  its  internal  affairs,  directly  to 
the  dependent  position  of  the  German  hierarchy  as  the 
creature  and  tool  of  a  foreign  power,  of  the  Papal  court  in 
Rome. 

Papal  and  not  German  interests  controlled  the  electoral 
college,  the  parliament,  the  empire's  relations  with  for- 
eign powers,  the  government  of  municipalities,  the  draft 
and  negotiation  of  treaties,  the  guilds  and  the  conditions 
of  labor,  commerce  and  industry.  Priestly  interference  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  Roman  camarilla  was  met  with 
in  all  the  walks  and  conditions  of  life.  It  was  this  policy 
of  interference,  dictated  by  Rome,  which  aroused  the  op- 
position of  the  patriotic  lower  clergy. 

Starting  in  a  small  way  under  the  mask  of  paternal 
fondness  and  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  and  temporal  wel- 
fare of  the  flock,  and  with  the  lullaby  of  admiration  for 
the  constitution  of  the  empire  and  its  people,  and  with 
the  growth  of  cities,  the  Papal  authority  had  gradually 
overshadowed  Germany  and  enslaved  her  government  and 
people. 


22  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

SECTION   III 

The  Economic  and  Moral  Causes  of  the  Reformation. 
For  c'onturies  the  cities  of  (jermany  were  the  great  dis- 
tributing points  of  the  world's  commerce  and  industry. 
Tlirough  the  maritime  discoveries  of  the  Portuguese  and 
Spaniards  commerce  was  diverted  into  other  channels. 
The  extraordinary  influx  of  precious  metals  from  India 
and  America  changed  the  standard  of  values  and  caused 
rapid  fluctuations  in  prices  and  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
burghers  already  experiencing  the  loss  of  commercial  and 
industrial  supremacy.  With  the  dawn  of  the  sixteenth 
century  a  financial  crisis  swept  over  Germany.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  violent  disturbances  in  her  economics  the 
land  question  had  come  to  be  of  vital  economic  and  po- 
litical import  to  the  whole  nation  and  its  immediate  solu- 
tion imperatively  demanded  by  the  distressing  financial 
condition  of  the  national  and  state  governments  and  of 
every  community,  also  by  the  class-interests  of  the  commer- 
cial and  industrial  bodies. 

At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  church  owned 
in  Germany  over  two-thirds  of  the  arable,  wooded,  and 
improved  land,  free  from  all  taxes  and'  encumbrances.  It 
monopolized  nearly  all  the  high-ways  and  by-ways  of  com- 
munication and  exacted  heavy  tolls  and  fees  of  one  kind 
or  another  from  trade  and  industry.  It  drained  the  finan- 
cial resources  of  the  nation  and  diverted  them  from  active 
employment  in  its  affairs  into  the  bottomless  coffers  of 
the  Papal  Court.  Thus  the  burdens  of  state  lay  heavily 
and  exclusively  on  the  impoverished  landed  aristocracy 
and  on  industry  and  commerce  under  anarchical  conditions, 
unfavorable  to  the  protection  of  the  sources  of  the  nation's 
economic  existence  or  to  their  systematic  and  remunerative 
development. 

The  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Constance  and  the  fact  of 
its  fruitless  labor  the  Papacy  had  interpreted  as  a  renewal 
of  its  license  to  enlarged  outrages  on  the  moral  sense  and 
the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  Christian  community.  The 
church  became  more  and  more  paganized,  demoralized,  bru- 
talized. What  depth  of  depravity  is  revealed  in  letting 
and  subletting  the  sale  of  indulgences  to  the  highest  bid- 
der !  All  restraint  of  wisdom  and  discretion  was  thrown 
aside  by  the  rulers  of  the  church,  all  moral  considerations 
were  ignored.     Whilst  society  was  at  the  brink  of  vice 


EXPULSION  OF  IHE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     23 

and  ruin,  while  the  masses  faced  starvation,  for  it  is  a 
historical  fact  that  hundreds  of  thousands  knew  not  a 
filling  meal  and  lived  in  squalor  and  wretchedness,  the 
tax-gatherers  of  Rome  traversed  the  Christian  World  to 
extort  the  last  farthing  from  the  poor  and  to  exploit  the 
rich.  With  flying  banners  and  trumpet  blasts  the  Papal 
agents  conducting  the  sale  of  indulgences  moved  from 
mart  to  mart  challenging  the  outraged  conscience  of  a 
Christian  nation.  Thus  the  Papal  Court,  at  the  time 
the  most  depraved  and  luxurious  in  the  Christian  or 
heathen  world,  enriched  itself  with  the  spoils  of  sacrilege, 
selling  the  compassion  of  the  Father  of  mercies,  the  love 
of  the  Saviour,  and  the  eternal  pleasures  of  Paradise  for 
less  than  Judas  asked  for  the  betrayal  of  the  Master. 

SECTION   IV 

Martin  Luther.  Such  were  the  religious,  social,  and  po- 
litical conditions  of  Germany  when  Luther  struck  his 
mighty  blows  for  freedom  of  conscience  and  national  deliv- 
erance, when  he,  clad  with  the  armor  of  patriotism  and 
righteousness,  assailed  with  Bible  truth  Papal  authority 
and  the  fabric  of  society,  rotten  and  tottering  in  Church 
and  State.  A  century  before  he  would  have  shared  the 
fate  of  Huss  and  of  other  martyrs  who  were  advanced  be- 
yond their  times.     The  field  was  ripe  for  the  harvester. 

A  plain  monk  of  considerable  learning,  of  great  cour- 
age, moral  and  common  sense,  burning  with  the  fire  of  in- 
tense and  yet  sober  patriotism,  a  plebeian  in  full  touch 
with  his  people,  Luther  was  well  qualified  not  only  to  be- 
come a  religious  reformer  but  the  exponent  of  the  nation's 
political  desires  as  well.  It  was  this  duality  in  his  char- 
acter and  movement  which  shielded  him  from  Papal  fury 
and  made  success  possible,  because  it  made  him  the  stand- 
ard bearer  of  all  the  revolutionary  forces  within  the  na- 
tion and  for  the  time  being  the  defender  and  promoter  of 
social  institutions,  deeply  rooted  in  the  tribal  and  demo- 
cratic system  of  the  national  government.  In  fact,  Luther 
was  the  father  of  modern  democracy.  This  duality  made 
possible  the  most  expedient  and  expeditious  solution  of 
the  land  question — the  secularization  of  the  episcopal  do- 
mains and  a  new  territorial  partition.  He  drew  his  re- 
ligious-political inspirations  from  the  Bible  because  he 
found  in  it  the  ethics  of  his  race.     The  geographical  and 


24  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

othiiolofiioal  confinos  of  the  Reformation  conclusively  show 
tliat  its  liidden  sources  were  of  a  racial  character.  Only 
the  people  of  Teutonic  orip;in  were  lastingly  affected  by  it: 
the  Germans,  Enjjlish,  Dutch,  Scandinavians  and,  in 
France,  the  descendants  of  the  Frank  conquerors  of  the 
Gauls. 

The  dual  character  of  the  Reformation  excluded  the 
sectarian  and  schismatic  spirit  which  impaired  all  other 
reformatory  movements  within  the  Christian  Church. 
From  this  duality  springs  the  continuity  of  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  it  gave  to  it  form  and  essence  and  infused  it  with 
a  lasting  and  ever  progressive  energy  which  will  sustain  it 
to  the  end  of  the  Teutonic  race.  From  the  Reformation's 
political  genius  and  Christianity  coming  generations  will 
evolve  an  ideal  commonwealth  in  which  the  humane  alone 
will  prevail.  The  progressive  forces  of  the  Reformation 
in  the  course  of  time  will  restore  to  society  the  spiritual 
conceptions  of  the  primitive  church,  and  propel  the  Teu- 
tonic race  the  world  over  into  a  political  union  on  the 
broad  basis  of  democracy.  Through  the  Reformation,  fate 
ordained  that  the  Teutonic  race  in  its  spiritual  life  should 
after  all  enjoy  all  the  blessings  which  long  before  would 
have  carried  it  to  great  glorj%  if  only  the  humane  teach- 
ings of  Christ  had  been  transmitted  to  it  while  yet 
in  the  vigor  and  chastity  of  racial  youth  and  not  at  a 
period  when  the  civilization,  through  which  it  was  to  re- 
ceive the  message  of  the  promised  land,  had  begun  to  de- 
cay and  the  message  itself  had  been  embellished  and  cor- 
rupted. 

SECTION  v 

The  Land  Question,  Feudalism  and  Royalty  in  Ger- 
many. At  first  the  Reformation  received  the  unqualified 
support  of  only  the  middle  class  and  that  part  of  the  lower 
nobility  which  had  been  impoverished  and,  therefore,  had 
approached  the  social  level  of  the  former.  It  was  not  an 
inspired  desire  for  religious  truth  or  the  ardor  of  faith 
which  moved  a  majority  of  the  German  princes  and  of  the 
higher  nobility  to  support  Luther  in  his  movement.  In 
fact,  for  some  time  it  appeared  questionable  which  side 
they  would  choose.  They  recognized  the  efficiency  and 
utility  of  the  Roman  Church  to  keep  the  people  ignorant 
and   superstitious  and   therefore  submissive;   they   recog- 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     25 

nized  and  feared  the  revolutionary  forces  hidden  in  a  popu- 
lar religious  movement  which  assailed  the  strongest  sup- 
port of  autocracy  and  which,  in  its  patriotic  tendency, 
might  jeopardize  all  political  usurpations,  and  economic 
and  social  privileges.  Forced  by  political  and  financial 
considerations  and  the  pressure  of  the  middle  class  to  ac- 
cept the  Reformation  as  a  national  institution,  they  were 
careful  to  restrict  the  political  and  social  advantages  ac- 
cruing therefrom  to  the  classes.  When  the  masses,  made 
desperate  by  hunger,  demanded  a  share  of  the  material 
benefits  arising  from  the  new  movement,  the  princes,  the 
higher  nobility,  and  the  patricians,  though  always  snarl- 
ing and  fighting  like  angry  curs  over  the  spoils,  imme- 
diately pooled  their  issues  and  united  forces  in  a  most 
cruel  suppression  of  the  peasants'  revolt. 

With  the  princes  the  desire  for  a  redistribution  of  the 
land  and  of  all  other  sources  of  revenue  and  wealth,  of 
which  the  Church  had  possessed  itself,  was  the  original 
and  only  motive  for  their  anti-Roman  policy.  The  Refor- 
mation appeared  most  opportune  to  settle  this  most  vital 
question  at  once  and  before  the  imminent  concentration 
and  reassertion  of  the  imperial  power  should  be  realized, 
a  political  possibility  which  might  lead  to  a  confiscation 
of  the  Church's  property  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the 
imperial  crown  and  also  to  a  curtailment  of  the  usurped 
political  rights  of  the  princes  and  grand  seigneurs. 

The  Government  of  Germany  was  an  elective  monarchy. 
Before  the  Church  exercised  a  dominating  influence  in  poli- 
tics and  the  period  of  usurpation  of  sovereign  and  popu- 
lar rights  by  the  royal  vassals  had  set  in,  the  national 
government  of  Germany,  considering  the  times,  was  cer- 
tainly as  democratic,  even  more  so  in  form  and  essence 
than  the  government  of  the  United  States  in  the  first 
period  of  its  existence.  The  German  national  government, 
in  a  certain  sense,  was  of  the  presidential  character.  In 
one  direction  the  powers  of  the  executive  were  larger 
and  in  another  more  restricted.  The  King  was  elected  by 
the  nobility,  the  municipalities,  and  the  yeomanry.  Every 
noble  was  eligible.  Rudolph  of  Hapsburg,  the  ancestor  of 
the  emperors  of  Austria,  when  elected  King  of  Germany, 
was  a  poor  knight  whose  only  claims  to  advancement  were 
nobility  of  character,  valor  and  executive  ability.  His 
only  possessions  were  his  sword,  an  old  castle  and  an  un- 


26  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

productive  farm.  Tlie  news  of  his  election  reached  him 
in  a  military  camp  while  besieging  the  bishop  of  Basel. 
At  the  unexpected  news  of  Rudolph's  elevation  this  fight- 
ing ecclesiastic,  according  to  legend,  cried  out  "Almighty, 
hold  fast  to  your  throne  or  this  errant  knight  will  pull 
you  off." 

In  conformity  with  the  old  Teutonic  principle  that  the 
people  were  the  owners  of  all  land,  the  kings  granted  at 
pleasure  to  whomever  they  chose  feudal  tenures  of  prov- 
inces and  counties,  they  appointed  the  military  and  civil 
administrators  and  the  judiciary.  The  kings  were  respon- 
sible to  Parliament,  in  which  all  law\s  originated  and  which 
alone  raised  the  supplies  to  sustain  the  power  of  the  crown. 
The  feudal  system  of  Germany  in  its  earliest  form  in  so 
far  as  the  relations  of  the  crown  and  its  subordinate  offi- 
cers were  concerned,  had  its  basic  idea,  one  might  say,  in 
the  Jacksonian  principle  of  rotation  in  otifice;  in  its  con- 
ception and  effects  it  was  purely  democratic  and  military. 
In  fact  it  was  a  military  and  not  an  economic  system  and 
entirely  foreign  to  the  feudal  system  which  later  on  de- 
veloped from  practices  originating  within  the  Church. 
When  the  German  nation  came  into  being  and  was  perma- 
nently settled,  the  land  was  divided  into  freeholds  of  which 
the  larger  w^ere  given  to  the  tribal  leaders  or  nobility  and 
the  rest  to  the  yeomanry  which  included  all  the  freeborn. 
The  conquered  Slavs  and  Gauls  became  serfs. 

With  the  building  of  monasteries  and  the  growth  of  su- 
perstition many  of  the  freeholders  were  moved  by  all  the 
artifices  known  to  priestcraft  to  transfer  their  holdings 
to  the  Church  and  accept  therefor  in  payment  its  blessings 
and  guarantee  of  future  bliss  and  in  this  life  poverty  and 
servitude.  It  was  the  Church  that  fastened  feudalism  on 
German  society.  Gradually  this  system  of  confiscation 
was  extended  and  improved  upon  by  the  powers  spiritual 
and  temporal  until  it  had  enslaved  the  rural  population. 
With  the  decline  of  the  royal  prestige  through  the  machi- 
nations of  the  Papal  Court,  the  crusades,  and  the  suicidal 
policy  of  armed  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  Italy  and 
Rome,  the  feudal  lords  usurped  the  prerogatives  of  the 
crown,  that  is  of  the  national  government,  and  claimed 
their  tenures,  originally  held  by  royal  will  alone,  as  prop- 
erty in  fee  simple.  Thus  states  within  the  state  and  dy- 
nastic interests  were  created,  and  the  crown  lost  the  di- 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     27 

rect  control  of  the  revenues  and  military  resources  of  the 
nation  and  became  dependent  upon  the  good  will  of  hun- 
dreds of  princes,  counts,  and  barons,  and  the  treacherous 
loyalty  of  the  pro-Roman  hierarchy.  The  German  em- 
pire was  cursed  with  Calhounism  in  an  aggravated  form, 
with  slavery  and  with  many-tongued  Sartollism.  Wher- 
ever the  King  commanded  large  resources  in  men  and 
money  of  his  own,  he  was  in  a  position  to  make  his  author- 
ity severely  felt  and  to  hold  the  former  vassals  of  the 
crown  to  strict  account,  to  unseat  a  Pope  or  two,  to  dis- 
cipline the  refractory  hierarchy,  and  to  secure  peace  and 
prosperity  to  the  nation.  History  tells  of  German  kings 
who  with  a  strong  military  force  and  a  number  of  execu- 
tioners traversed  all  parts  of  the  empire,  laid  low  the 
strongholds  of  defiant  vassals,  ecclesiastics,  and  robber- 
barons  and  had  these  worthies,  who  were  the  plutocrats 
and  financial  wolves  of  the  times,  strung  up  over  the  smol- 
dering ruins  of  their  lairs. 

SECTION   VI 

The  Maritime  Discoveries. — Spanish  Absolutism  and 
Catholicism.  Royalty  in  Germany  favored  the  middle 
class  and  found  loyal  response.  The  enemies  of  the 
burgher  were  the  enemies  of  the  king,  and  therefore,  mu- 
tual interests  bound  them  together  in  their  struggle  with 
the  Church,  the  petty  princes,  and  the  lords.  To  extend 
the  power  of  the  king  and  the  democratic  organizations  of 
the  cities,  then  locked  up  within  their  walls,  was  the  first 
political  object  of  the  Reformation.  That  it  had  to  seek 
other  political  channels  was  due  to  the  character  and  er- 
ror of  judgment  of  a  royal  youth  and  the  discovery  of 
America. 

For  over  two  centuries  descendants  of  Rudolph  of  Haps- 
burg  had  almost  uninterruptedly  been  elected  kings  of 
Germany.  By  marriage  and  as  fiefs  the  house  of  Haps- 
burg  had  accjuired  a  number  of  dukedoms  in  Germany  and 
the  right  of  succession  to  the  crown  of  Spain  and  its  de- 
pendencies, to  the  crown  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  to  that  of 
Burgundy  and  Milan,  and  to  the  government  of  the  Neth- 
erlands. In  1516  the  Hapsburgs  became  possessed  of  all 
these  rights  by  one  of  the  family,  Charles  I,  a  youth  of 
sixteen  years,  succeeding  to  the  crown  of  Spain,  thus  coming 
into  all  the  other  inheritances.     Since  the  days  of  Charle- 


28  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

magnc  suoh  a  coiifentration  of  power  in  tho  hands  of  one 
person  had  not  taken  place.  As  fate  willed  it,  nearly  eon- 
current  with  this  event,  an  election  for  King  of  Germany 
was  to  be  held.  Charles  I  of  Spain,  and  the  Kings  of 
France  and  England  entered  the  race.  For  the  civilized 
peoples  of  Europe  and  the  future  of  mankind  the  result  of 
this  election  was  of  tremendous  import. 

Though  the  German  Kingdom  at  the  time  was  in  tnith 
only  a  bundle  of  fiefs  and  the  King  only  one  of  a  number 
of  petty  princes  with  more  dignity  and  often  less  power 
than  his  colleagues,  yet  when  in  a  position  to  command  large 
revenues  and  military  resources  of  his  o\\ti,  it  was  possible 
for  him  to  exert  a  decisive  influence  over  the  political  des- 
tiny of  Europe,  in  fact,  to  become  its  sole  arbiter  and  re-as- 
sert his  political  supremacy  as  Koman  Emperor.  The  elec- 
tion w^as  hotly  contested.  To  an  extent  never  before  known 
bribery  was  made  use  of.  For  the  first  time  the  use  of  x\mer- 
iean  gold  decided  an  election  in  Europe.  Charles  I,  King  of 
Spain,  as  Charles  V,  was  chosen  King  of  Germany  and 
Roman  Emperor.  Spain,  then  the  most  bigoted  country 
in  civilized  Europe,  was  at  the  time  beginning  to  draw 
into  its  coffers  the  precious  metals  of  its  American  colonies, 
and,  therefore,  was  growing  in  political  and  military  im- 
portance. During  the  Middle  Ages,  Spain  had  for  nearly 
eight  centuries  been  engaged  in  religious  war  against  the 
Mohammedans.  Under  their  rule  it  had  flourished  in  sci- 
ence, arts,  industry  and  commerce  and  as  the  most  civilized 
country  in  Europe  had  far  outstripped  in  the  humane  and 
in  general  culture  every  Christian  people.  During  the 
perpetual  religious  war  the  clergy  had  acquired  absolute 
power  and,  therefore,  when  the  Half-moon  succumbed  be- 
fore the  Cross,  the  fanatical  clergy  enforced  the  exodus  of 
the  ]\Ioors  and  supplanted  their  enlightened  and  humane 
government  with  royal  despotism  under  the  strict  guardi- 
anship of  the  Roman  camarilla.  Then  the  glory  and  pros- 
perity of  Spain  vanished.  Its  cities,  under  Moorish  rule 
industrious,  rich,  populous,  and  powerful,  became  de- 
serted and  impoverished  and  lost  their  liberties  and  priv- 
ileges. The  fields  w'hich  were  once  called  the  gardens  of 
Europe,  became  waste  and  the  abode  of  the  most  wretched 
and  superstitious  peasantry  of  Europe.  The  poverty  and 
misery  which  followed  the  ascendancy  of  the  Roman  hier- 
archy was  almost  indescribable.    Within  a  century  and  a 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     29 

half  of  the  final  victory  over  the  Moors,  absolutism  and 
theocracy  had  transformed  the  most  prosperous  country 
of  the  Middle  Ages  into  one  in  which  arts  and  manufac- 
tures were  entirelj'-  lost  and  where  in  place  of  the  brilliant 
lisrht  of  Moorish  civilization  which  for  centuries  had 
brought  benefit  to  mankind,  the  hapless  funereal  flames 
of  the  Autos-da-Fe  lighted  the  way  of  the  nation  to  its 
spiritual  and  political  sepulcher. 

SECTION    VII 

Charles  V.  Roman  Emperor.  Charles  V  had  been 
brought  up  and  educated  in  Spain  under  the  close  super- 
vision of  the  Church.  In  thought  and  feeling  he  had  been 
estranged  from  his  race ;  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
though  less  bigoted,  he  was  a  Spaniard  in  mind  and  soul. 
To  guard  his  youthful  mind  against  any  progressive  im- 
pressions and  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  and  to  imbue 
him  more  fully  with  Roman  fanaticism  the  Church  re- 
tained him  in  Spain  another  year. 

Enthusiastically  received  by  the  people  in  the  Nether- 
lands and  in  Germany,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 
young  Emperor  was  already  lost  to  the  national  cause,  and 
that  his  mind  had  been  dulled,  dwarfed,  and  prejudiced 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  hide  from  him  the  political  import 
of  the  Reformation  and  the  opportunities  it  offered  him 
to  achieve  greatness  and  renown  and  to  become  the  bene- 
factor of  his  race  and  of  mankind.  Never  in  historical 
times  did  mortal  being  enjoy  such  opportunities  to  ad- 
vance the  human  race.  Never  in  historical  times  did  mor- 
tal being  pay  less  regard  to  ultimate  consequences.  As 
Roman  Emperor  whom  the  traditions  of  a  thousand  years 
held  to  be  the  Vice-Regent  of  God  on  Earth,  as  King  of 
Germany  at  the  head  of  the  most  war-like  nation  of  the 
times,  as  the  Lord  of  the  Netherlands  commanding  the 
Seas,  as  the  King  of  Spain  controlling  the  riches  of  the 
Americas,  as  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily  and  Duke  of  ]\Iilan 
holding  the  Papacy  in  a  vise-like  grip,  he  by  a  stroke  of 
his  pen  might  have  changed  the  future  history  of  the 
human  race.  At  the  session  of  the  German  Parliament  at 
Worms,  when  Luther  passionately  pleaded  before  him  the 
cause  of  his  race  and  nation,  of  freedom  of  conscience  and 
civic  liberty,  humanity  appealed  to  Charles  V  in  vain, 


30  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"He  miglit  have  soared  in  the  morning  light, 
lie  made  his  nest  with  the  birds  of  night." 

Vainly  did  he,  for  seven  years  and  unto  his  last  hour 
in  cloistered  solitude  mourn  over  the  lost  opportunity  and  a 
wasted  life.  He  bequeathed  to  generations  all  the  horrors 
of  civil  and  religious  war  and  perpetuated  the  rule  of  the 
anti-Christ.  ]\lillions  of  human  beings  were  slain,  the 
homes  of  millions  laid  in  ruins,  whole  countries  devastated, 
and  the  light  of  heaven  darkened  for  centuries  through  an 
error  in  judgment  of  one  man.  Through  his  elevation  to 
the  pinnacle  of  earthly  power  and  his  failure  to  discern 
liis  momentous  opportunity  to  become  the  deliverer  of  the 
Christian  people  from  the  thraldom  of  the  Papacy,  the 
civilized  world  was  threatened  with  a  new  danger — that 
of  a  universal  despotism  under  the  control  of  theocratic 
Rome.  The  Christian  World  at  large  was  threatened  with 
the  inquisition,  with  the  extinguishment  of  the  last  embers 
of  liberty  of  conscience.  The  Christian  World  might  wit- 
ness Autos-da-Fe  rivalling  in  horror  the  cruelties  perpe- 
trated in  ancient  Rome  where  the  living  bodies  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  the  primitive  Christians  served  as  fagots  to 
illuminate  the  orgies  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus  and  of  his 
barbarous  court. 

SECTION    VIII 

The  Middle  Class,  the  Cities,  and  the  Protestant  Clergy. 

Charles  the  Fifth's  pro-Roman  policy  swept  the  Refor- 
mation into  political  channels  which  for  centuries  carried 
it  far  out  of  its  course.  Even  within  our  times,  in  the  age 
of  intellectual  advancement,  scientific  and  historical  re- 
search, we  find  it  drifting  without  due  guidance  in  these 
very  channels  seeking  an  outlet  to  reach  its  political  goal. 
Even  in  the  land  of  its  inception  it  is  afflicted  with  apathy 
to  progress,  and  apparent  premature  decay.  In  its  polit- 
ical character  originally'  a  movement  for  national  unity 
and  the  preservation  of  the  democratic  nurseries  in  the 
cities,  through  Charles  V  opposition  the  Reformation  was 
driven  to  seek  support  from  the  petty  princes  and  the 
feudal  lords  and  thus  of  necessity  was  made  subservient 
to  the  perpetuation  of  economic  and  social  conditions  which 
were  the  cause  of  Germany's  misfortune  and  are  now 
threatening  the  welfare  of  the  American  democracy. 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     31 

Heretofore  the  free  cities  had  allied  themselves  with  the 
emperors  as  the  representatives  of  Teutonic  democracy, 
but  from  the  era  of  Charles  V,  that  is  from  the  ascendency 
of  Spanish  absolutism  in  the  politics  of  Germany,  the  mid- 
dle class,  already  weakened  by  adverse  economic  influences, 
was  forced  to  change  front  in  its  political  relations  with 
the  formerly  nearly  coordinate  powers  of  the  realm. 
This  change  in  the  political  affections  of  the  middle  class 
was  favored  by  the  princes.  The  concentration  of  enor- 
mous powers  in  the  hands  of  Charles  V  and  the  alliance 
of  his  successors  with  Spanish  absolutism  threatened  the 
princes  and  grand-seigneurs  with  dislodgment  from  their 
usurpations  of  sovereignty.  It  also  foreshadowed  the 
gradual  dismemberment  of  that  unwieldy  body,  the  Ger- 
man Parliament,  of  which  they  were  the  moving  spirits  in 
its  denationalizing  and  obstructively  reactionary  policy. 
They  feared  a  process  of  retrogression  to  their  former 
condition  of  vassalage  and  dependency  on  imperial  pleas- 
ure. They  were,  therefore,  more  than  ready  to  patronize 
the  cities.  This  unholy  alliance  between  democratic  com- 
munities and  dynastic  interests  proved  fatal  to  the  liber- 
ties of  the  cities.  The  constant  warfare  which  grew  out  of 
the  struggle  between  the  Papacy  and  the  Reformation, 
and  in  which  despotic  Spain,  commanding  the  inexhaust- 
ible resources  of  its  rich  colonies,  fought  for  the  leader- 
ship with  Catholic  France,  together  with  the  ambitious 
designs  for  the  conquest  of  Sweden  and  Condottieri,  im- 
poverished the  German  cities  and  brought  them  more  and 
more  under  the  influence  of  imperialism  or  of  powerful 
neighboring  dynasties.  While  the  cities  still  retained  the 
outward  forms  of  democratic  organization,  they  virtually 
ceased  to  be  the  harbingers  of  industrial  and  political  free- 
dom. Within  a  century  of  the  Thirty  Years  War,  they  were 
with  very  few  exceptions,  de  facto  if  not  de  jure,  depend- 
encies or  maintained  their  autonomy  solely  by  the  grace  of 
some  foreign  power. 

Under  the  petrifying  process  which  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  seized  European  society  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  political  reaction  following  in  the  wake 
of  dynastic  wars,  the  middle  class  lost  entirely  its  political 
prestige  and  dropped  into  utter  spiritual  and  social  apathy. 
The  burghers'  political  vision  did  not  extend  beyond  their 
walls,  and  their  soulless  ambition  exhausted  itself  with  the 


32  CASSOCK  A^^D  SWORD 

petty  afTairs  of  every  day  life  in  communities,  from  which 
the  spirit  of  democracy,  and  the  genius  of  prosperity  and, 
therefore,  of  patriotism  had  fled.  When  the  political  and 
material  progress  of  the  cities  was  arrested,  the  onward 
movement  of  the  Reformation  and  with  it  that  of  national 
union,  of  social  and  economic  emancipation,  and  of  polit- 
ical liberty  was  arrested. 

In  the  attempt  to  throw  off  the  incul)i  of  Popery  and 
despotism,  Germany  had  exhausted  herself.  Nearly  three 
centuries  of  bloodshed  and  devastation,  during  which  the 
German  people  contended  with  every  continental  power 
and  repulsed  the  I\Iohammedan  invasions,  left  their  coun- 
try religiously  and  politically  in  a  chaotic  condition ;  but 
these  centuries  also  witnessed  the  staying  powers  of  Prot- 
estantism and  the  creation  of  conditions  for  its  triumphant 
progress. 

During  the  deadly  conflict  with  superstition  and  tyranny 
the  German  nation  laid  the  foundation  for  intellectual 
greatness  and  thus  entered  upon  the  fulfillment  of  its  po- 
litical mission  of  driving  the  Papacy  from  Europe,  of 
guarding  civilization  against  the  Asiaticizing  tendency  of 
the  Czars — who  in  their  dual  character  as  temporal  rulers 
of  semi-barbarous  peoples  and  as  the  Popes  of  the  Eastern 
church  are  the  very  incarnation  of  religious  and  political 
despotism — and  of  establishing  a  humane  government  by 
the  learned  estate  for  the  people.  Because  of  their  idola- 
trous veneration  for  riches  and  the  carnality  of  their  hearts 
the  privileged  classes  everywhere  have  lost  the  intellectual 
and  moral  qualities  absolutely  necessary  to  carry  into  effect 
the  humane  precepts  of  the  Reformation  and  by  its  light 
to  create  a  new^  social  order  on  a  higher  plane. 

The  adverse  influences  of  Charles  the  Fifth's  policy  on 
German  economic  and  social  life  were  felt  until  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  For  instance,  they  retarded  the  in- 
dustrial progress  of  the  German  people  so  effectively  that 
until  quite  recently  it  was  unable  to  profit  to  any  extent 
from  the  application  of  science  to  industrial  pursuits  or  to 
enter  into  collective  industry  in  a  manner  enabling  it  to 
compete  in  the  markets  of  the  World.  At  the  close  of 
the  Thirty  Years  War  when  the  political  status  of  the 
Reformation  was  firmly  established,  these  evil  influences 
had  nearly  destroyed  within  the  nation  the  inward  spirit 
of  religion  and  crushed  its  emotions.     The  religious  fervor 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     33 

of  the  nation  had  almost  exhausted  itself.  The  Protestant 
clergy  had  ceased  to  be  imbued  with  the  missionary  spirit 
of  an  ecclcsia  militans  and  were  oblivious  of  the  political 
and  patriotic  aims  of  the  Reformation.  Altofz;ether  sub- 
servient to  the  interests  of  the  classes,  the  clergy  of  Ger- 
many, like  that  of  England,  were  often  reduced  to  the 
degraded  condition  of  serving  as  lackeys  and  jesters  at  the 
courts  of  the  petty  princes  and  lords.  They  were  idolaters 
of  the  rich  and  the  mouthpiece  of  the  classes.  When  given 
to  intellectual  efforts  they  wasted  life  and  opportunities 
in  mystical  research  and  fruitless  and  bizarre  scholastic 
disputations. 

While  from  the  ranks  of  the  ministry  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  had  departed,  it  had  inspired  the  learned  es- 
tate to  search  for  truth,  to  throw  off  the  shackles  of  mysti- 
cism and  to  brush  aside  the  dust  and  cobwebs  of  judaistic 
superstition  and  tradition.  It  had  also  inspired  an  epoch 
in  patriotic  and  heroic  literature  which  aroused  the  high- 
est faculties  of  the  nation's  mind  and  soul. 

SECTION   IX 

The  English  Revolution.  In  England,  as  well  as  in 
German}',  the  Reformation  was  a  social  movement,  a  strug- 
gle of  the  middle  class  for  the  lasting  exercise  of  co- 
ordinate powers  in  the  government.  It  was  a  protest 
against  the  injustice  of  the  church's  temporal  exactions 
and  its  pernicious  meddling  with  the  nations'  foreign  and 
internal  affairs;  in  a  moral  sense  it  was  also  a  protest 
against  the  violation  of  the  ethics  of  the  Teutonic  race. 
This  appears  more  clearly  from  the  causes  of  the  English 
Revolution  which  for  the  first  time  brought  forth  the  true 
spirit  of  the  Reformation.  The  movement  under  Henry 
VIII,  socially  considered,  was  solely  a  dissolution  of  the 
partnership  between  royalty  and  the  Papacy  from  which 
the  latter  drew  more  than  five  times  the  amount  left  to 
royalty.  It  was  a  solution  of  the  land  question  almost 
exclusively  in  favor  of  the  crown — a  stroke  of  policy 
through  which  royalty  expected  to  reestablish  absolutism. 
Royalty  failed  in  its  design  because  in  its  calculations  it 
left  out  the  most  important  factor  in  the  amalgam  of  the 
English  nation — the  ethics  of  the  Saxon.  Charles  I  paid 
the  penalty  for  royalty's  mistake  that  the  new  religious 
doctrines  were  the  consequences  and  not  the  cause  of  the 


34  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Reformation,  which  in  its  social  character  was  only  firmly 
established  witii  the  execution  of  tiie  royal  usurper,  with 
the  downfall  of  absolute  monarchy,  and  with  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  Commons. 

The  ethical  or  racial  forces  of  the  Reformation  could  not 
find  a  true  expression  in  the  Established  Chui-ch,  They 
showed  forth  in  their  glory  in  the  dissenting  bodies,  in  the 
piety  and  valor  of  the  Ironsides,  and  in  the  revolutionary 
measures  of  Cromwell's  reign.  Next  to  Silent  William  of 
Orange,  Cromwell,  real,  curt,  masterful  and  direct,  was 
the  foremost  political  representative  of  the  Reformation. 
Like  his  illustrious  predecessor  in  the  Netherlands,  he  saw 
the  ideals  possible  through  the  ethics  of  his  race  and  those 
of  Christianity.  He  could  not  give  to  his  creations  the 
humane  and  broad  democratic  character  with  which  the 
silent  Prince  stamped  the  reformatory  movements  in  the 
Netherlands  because  the  England  of  Cromwell's  times  was 
not  ripe  for  that  which  Cromwell's  genius  reasoned  and 
willed. 

That  England  reaped  nearly  all  the  economic  and  so- 
cial benefits  following  from  the  Reformation  centuries  be- 
fore Germany  was  due  to  the  geographical  position  of 
England  and  not  to  the  superiority  of  her  people.  In- 
habiting the  middle  of  Europe,  the  German  people  had 
to  bear  the  brunt  of  every  fight  in  every  contention  over 
religious  and  political  matters ;  their  country  was  the  great 
arena  in  which  the  battles  for  religious  freedom  were  fought 
and  where  they  will  be  fought  to  a  finish.  As  for  England, 
the  destruction  of  the  Armada  by  the  elements,  the  heroic 
struggle  of  the  Netherlands,  the  ambition  of  Gustave 
Adolph  of  Sweden,  the  Thirty  Years'  and  the  Seven  Years' 
Wars,  the  genius  of  Frederick  the  Great,  and  the  en- 
circling ocean  spared  her  the  tribulations  endured  by  Ger- 
many and  delivered  her  from  the  nightmare  of  Popery 
and  absolutism.  These  historical  events  and  nature 's  favor 
granted  to  her  middle  class  security  and  prosperity,  the 
sources  of  the  political  power  of  the  Commons  and  of  Eng- 
land's industrial  and  commercial  greatness. 

SECTION  X 

Huguenotism  and  Henry  IV  of  France.  Although  the 
Reformation  affected  all  the  Latin  Nations,  with  one  excep- 
tion it  failed  to  find  Avithin  them  a  permanent  lodgment. 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     35 

In  Spain  it  was  entirely  suppressed  within  a  decade,  and 
in  Italy  the  last  traces  disappeared  with  the  advent  of  the 
Jesuits.  In  France  alone  it  gained  a  firm  foothold  and 
left  a  permanent  impression ;  in  fact,  her  administration 
has  been  largely  controlled  by  Protestants,  the  descendants 
of  the  Huguenots,  who  alone  have  hitherto  saved  French 
society  from  the  anarchical  forces  always  slumbering  un- 
der the  democratic  and  humane  veneering  of  Gallic  nature. 

Protestantism  spread  in  France  over  the  provinces  in 
which  the  Fraukish  or  Teutonic  element  was,  as  yet,  a 
powerful  social-political  factor.  Though  the  Germaniza- 
tion  of  Britain  went  far  deeper  than  the  Latinization  of 
France,  yet  the  centralizing  and  autocratic  tendency  of 
Latinism  within  France's  social  organism  had  already 
reached  such  a  volume  that  the  middle  class  and  the  no- 
bility, who  were  of  Frankish  origin,  were  unable  to  stem 
the  current.  Royalty  had  nearly  succeeded  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  powerful  feudal  lords  of  Frankish  descent  to 
functionaries  of  the  crown  and  was  then  stripping  the 
more  or  less  independent  cities,  in  which  the  Frankish  ele- 
ment had  its  last  stronghold,  of  their  liberties.  The  his- 
tory of  the  Reformation  and  of  every  succeeding  revolu- 
tion in  France  is  the  history  of  the  struggle  for  supremacy 
between  the  communities  on  the  one  side  and  absolutism  on 
the  other.  The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  reign  of 
Terror,  the  fusillades  and  the  reactionary  fury  in  1871  are 
only  conspicuous  episodes  of  the  continuous  process  of 
extermination  of  the  Frankish  element  in  the  social  organ- 
ism of  France.  This  process  commenced  with  the  reign 
of  Louis  XI  and  will  close  under  anarchical  conditions  of 
cyclonic  force  with  the  disruption  pf  France  and  the  down- 
fall of  the  Papacy  that  the  orderly  advance  of  the  human 
race  may  not  suffer  violence. 

Henry  of  Navarre  had  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
religious,  or  rather  racial  character  of  this  struggle,  and 
of  the  great  progress  made,  when  he  sacrificed  a  hopeless 
cause  to  his  ambition  and,  with  his  apostasy  from  Prot- 
estantism, secured  the  crown  of  France.  His  policy  and 
tragic  fate  indicates  that  he  may  have  nourished  the  hope 
to  stop  the  process  of  extermination  and  thus  to  secure  the 
stability  of  French  society  and  the  exclusion  of  Papal  in- 
fluence. He  paid  with  his  life  for  the  mistake  of  his  life. 
Unmindful  of  the  fate  of  his  predecessor  and  of  others 


36  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  of  the  lessons  of  history,  lie  entered  reaervaiio  mentalis 
into  a  compact  with  the  Papacy.  Like  others,  individuals 
and  nations,  Henry  IV  of  Prance  paid  the  penalty  for  his 
ti-ust  in  the  hellish  i)o\vers  of  the  camarilla  wilh  which  no 
truth  or  compromise  is  possible.  lie  ought  to  have  known 
that  this  camarilla  never  stopped  at  any  means,  be  they 
ever  so  foul,  to  accomplish  its  ambitious  desig^is  and  grat- 
ify its  insatiate  hunger  for  power,  that  for  it  all  things 
were  sanctified  by  the  presumption  that  they  served  ad  ma- 
jorcm  Dei  gloriam.  Once  within  the  pale  of  Romanism, 
so  do  historical  events  of  a  thousand  years  demonstrate, 
genius  and  might,  individuals,  families  and  nations  alike 
succumb  to  the  viles,  the  venom,  and  the  fury  of  the  most 
selfish,  cruel  and  relentless  theocracy  of  historical  times. 

SECTION   XI 

The  Learned  Estate.  Over  England  a  century  passed, 
and  over  Germany  the  wars  of  three  centuries  swept  ere 
these  countries  gathered  the  political  fruits  of  which  the 
germs  lay  imbedded  in  the  Reformation.  The  most  pre- 
cious of  these  fruits,  democracy,  is  there,  as  yet,  waiting 
the  harvester. 

With  the  study  of  the  Bible,  the  doctrine  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  whether  rich  or  poor,  was  again  set  forth  and 
within  the  nations  of  Teuton  descent  the  traditions  of 
their  race  as  to  the  social  equality  of  man  and  self-govern- 
ment were  revived. 

The  attempted  suppression  of  the  Reformation,  and  the 
fierce  and  incessant  struggle  between  the  Teutonic  and 
Latin  races  resulting  therefrom,  gave  to  the  hitherto  po- 
litically disinherited  the  opportunity  to  demand  and  en- 
force social  recognition.  Through  the  Reformation,  and 
the  wars  that  followed,  a  partial  reorganization  of  society 
and  a  redistribution  of  wealth  took  place,  each  favorable 
to  the  extension  of  economic  independence  to  ever  enlarg- 
ing circles  and,  therefore,  to  intellectual  progress,  always 
the  precursor  of  important  changes  in  the  relation  of  the 
classes.  There  is  no  question  that  the  most  important 
issue  of  the  Reformation,  considered  in  its  totality  as  the 
real  source  of  a  higher  civilization,  is  the  learned  estate, 
a  new  class  brought  forth  by  the  Reformation,  and  destined, 
before  long,  to  assume  the  sole  leadership  in  the  progress 
of  the  human  race  and  to  develop  modern  democracy  not 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     37 

to  Utopian  perfection  but  to  that  degree  of  perfection  in 
which  the  pursuit  of  happiness  is  open  to  all. 

Protestantism  brought  the  learned  estate  into  being  and 
into  political  life  as  a  powerful  motor,  at  first  exclusively 
in  a  religious  garb  and  in  harmony  with  the  middle  class 
because  in  the  defense  of  the  common  faith  the  economic 
interests  of  these  two  classes  gradually  approached  identity 
and  were  at  stake.  Whenever  in  the  course  of  economic 
progress  the  division  of  society  into  rich  and  poor  shall 
have  reached  that  stage  where  capital  will  control  all 
avenues  to  preferment  and  monopolize  all  the  amenities 
of  life,  then  the  interests  of  the  learned  estate  will  have 
ceased  to  be  identical  or  in  reasonable  correspondence  with 
those  of  the  middle  class.  The  learned  will  then  naturally 
gravitate  to  the  masses  and  the  equilibrium  of  society  will 
be  upset  because  the  learned  alone  hold  it  in  balance.  The 
social  question  will  then  be  solved — under  certain  condi- 
tions— in  an  orderly  manner. 

Where  and  whenever  in  Protestant  communities  the 
learned  estate  took  a  decisive  part  in  political  movements, 
it  revealed  the  most  progressive  and  conscientious  force 
with  a  decidedly  democratic  tendency.  The  struggle  for 
the  independence  of  the  Netherlands,  the  establishment  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  the  English  Revolu- 
tion, our  War  of  Independence,  the  war  against  the  Cath- 
olic Sonderhund  in  Switzerland,  and  the  revolutionary 
movements  in  Germany  in  1848-49  gave  expression  to  the 
progressive  and  altruistic  character  of  this  force  and  wit- 
nessed its  gradual  expansion  from  the  narrow  confines  of 
sectarianism  into  humaneness. 

SECTION  XII 

Modern  Democracy  and  the  Struggle  in  the  Nether- 
lands. With  the  exception  of  the  drama  of  war  which  for 
three  centuries,  with  only  short  intermissions,  engaged  all 
the  energies  and  resources  of  the  German  people,  and  the 
War  of  Independence,  the  most  important  struggle  in  the 
history  of  mankind  has  been  that  of  the  Netherlands  for 
political  and  religious  freedom.  Out  of  it  modern  democ- 
racy took  its  rise. 

The  Dutch  established  the  principle  of  government  by 
the  people,  of  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  The  Union 
of  Utrecht  of  1579,  which  organized  the  free  and  independ- 


38  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ent  government  of  the  United  Netherlands,  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  every  succeeding  democratic  structure.  It  was  an 
act  of  original,  inherent  sovereignty  by  the  people  them- 
selves and  the  precursor  of  the  Ayncrictin  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  of  the  American  Union.  It  proclaimed 
religious  tolerance,  the  right  of  self-government,  the  doc- 
trines of  states-rights  and  of  the  inseparable  political  un- 
ion of  all  the  States — doctrines  on  which  centuries  later 
American  statesmen  erected  the  structure  of  the  United 
States.  The  people  of  the  Netherlands  were  in  the  van  in 
the  conception  of  human  liberty  and  its  practical  applica- 
tion. The  men  of  Haarlem  and  Leyden  advanced  the  doc- 
trine that  the  community-at-large  was  responsible  for  the 
intellectual  and  moral  training  of  the  future  citizens. 
They  organized  the  first  system  of  public  schools  and  en- 
forced compulsory  education,  the  most  efficient  promoters 
of  religious  and  civic  liberty,  and  of  democracy,  and,  in 
our  days,  the  strongest  bulwark  of  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple. Three  hundred  years  ago,  the  Dutch  people  stood 
forth  alone,  unflinchingly  and  heroically,  the  sole  cham- 
pion on  earth  of  civic  and  religious  liberty.  Their  heroic 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  genius 
and  heroism  of  William  of  Orange  will  forever  command 
the  admiration  of  mankind.  How  great  would  have  been 
its  gain  had  fate  decreed  that  the  genius  of  William  of 
Orange  should  have  enjoyed  the  powers  of  Charles  V  and 
his  opportunities  for  the  elevation  of  the  human  race! 

SECTION   XIII 

The  Thirty- Years'  and  the  Seven- Years'  Wars. — 
American  Independence.  Considered  from  a  purely  mili- 
tary standpoint,  the  Thirty  Years'  War  accomplished  very 
little.  It  established  the  political  status  of  the  Reforma- 
tion on  the  continent,  though  on  sufferance  only.  Its  po- 
litical consequences  were  of  portentous  moment  to  Europe, 
to  the  North-American  colonies,  and  to  the  human  race 
through  the  Swedish  invasion  of  Germany. 

The  towering  ambition  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of 
Sweden,  attempted  to  supplant  the  imperial  government 
of  Catholic  Hapsburg  with  a  Protestant  Confederation 
under  the  hegemony  of  Sweden.  A  bullet  fired  by  a  Ger- 
man patriot  or  by  an  ungrateful  partisan,  possibly  an 
accident,  saved  Germany  and  the  cause  of  Protestantism 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     39 

from  the  dangers  of  militarism  at  a  time  when  its  success 
would  have  stifled  all  emotions  of  heart  and  soul.  The 
permanent  lodgment  of  Sweden  then  effected  by  its  mili- 
tary forces  in  the  North  of  Europe,  eventually  will  lead 
to  the  final  triumph  of  Protestantism  over  the  Papacy  on 
the  continent  of  Europe.  Indirectly  it  also  became  a  cause 
of  the  independence  of  the  North-American  colonies.  The 
Swedish  lodgment  granted  to  the  house  of  Hohenzollern 
the  opportunity  of  expansion,  to  establish  its  religious- 
military  State,  and  to  fix  immovably  the  political  status  of 
the  Reformation  in  Europe. 

The  Seven-Years'  War,  the  logical  continuation  of  the 
Thirty-Years'  War,  advanced  Prussia  into  line  with  the 
Great  Powers  of  Europe  and  established  in  Germany  the 
balance  of  military  power  between  Protestantism  and  Ro- 
manism. The  crushing  defeat  of  the  French  at  Rossbach 
by  Frederick  the  Great  made  possible  the  peace  of  1763 
by  which  the  American  colonies  were  relieved  from  the 
fear  of  French  aggression  on  the.  North  and  of  Spanish 
aggression  on  the  South.  The  Seven-Years '  War  destroyed 
the  empire  of  France  upon  this  continent  and  committed 
America  to  Teutonic  civilization  and  Protestantism. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Struggle  of  Races  Over  the  Papacy 

section  i 

Sedan  and  the  Papacy.  The  first  struggle  between  Ro- 
manism and  Protestantism  in  Germany  closed  with  the 
battle  of  Sadowa.  Its  setting  sun  witnessed  the  atone- 
ment of  the  sin  committed  by  Charles  V  against  his  race 
and  against  humanity  and  by  the  Hapsburgs  continued  for 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  "Whosoever  committeth 
sin  is  the  servant  of  sin."  Whoever  submits  to  the  Papacy 
is  made  the  servant  of  sin  and  will  reap  the  harvest  of  sin. 

Fate  willed  it  that  at  the  very  time  Protestantism  in 
Germany  had  fouglit  the  last  battle  for  predominance  in 
national  affairs  the  destiny  of  France,  the  foremost  Cath- 
olic and  Latin  power,  was  swayed  by  a  Spanish  woman 
[Empress  Eugenie]  through  whom  the  pro-Roman  policy 
of  the  Spanish  monarchy  was  transmitted  to  the  second 
Napoleonic  empire.  Urged  on  by  the  Papal  camarilla, 
this  woman  precipitated  the  last  struggle  for  supremacy 
between  the  Teutonic  and  Latin  races,  between  Protestant- 
ism and  Romanism  in  Europe.  On  the  heights  of  Sedan 
tlie  strife  lasting  six  centuries  between  the  German  nation 
and  the  Pontifex  Maximus  ended.  Great  and  ever  flowing 
had  been  the  woe  caused  by  it!  Millions  of  lives  were 
sacrificed,  families  were  extinguished  and  cities  were  laid 
in  ashes!  IMillions  of  broken  hearts  and  tragic  fates,  hor- 
rors and  barbarities  without  end  marked  the  policy  of  the 
Papacy  in  its  vampiric  designs  against  the  Teutonic  na- 
tions. 

The  Franco-German  War  decided  the  fate  of  the  Papacy 
in  Europe.  With  the  entrance  of  the  Italian  national 
forces  into  Rome  the  Patrimonium  Petri,  this  curse  of  a 
thousand  years  and  of  mankind,  was  lost  to  the  Papacy — 
the  time  will  be,  at  no  distant  date,  when  this  relic  of  past 
ages  shall  be  effaced  by  the  ever  growing  light  of  humanity 
and  the  apostle  of  darkness  made  a  wanderer  on  earth. 

40 


EXPULSION  OF  THE   PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     41 

For  humanity 's  sake  let  us  hope,  that  ignorance  and  super- 
stition, or  cowardice  will  not  build  up  on  the  American 
continent  another  stronghold  of  priestly  rapacity  and  vio- 
lence, from  which  Papal  bulls  may  issue  to  interdict  all 
intellectual  and  humane  progress,  messengers  of  evil  bring- 
ing sufferings  of  every  description  to  individuals,  families 
and  nations.  May  Providence  preserve  the  American  peo- 
ple from  such  an  infliction !  May  the  American  people 
profit  by  the  lessons  of  history ! 

SECTION  II 

Napoleon  I.  The  wealth  which  England's  middle  class 
had  accumulated  through  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  the 
economic  and  social  fruits  of  the  Reformation  was  most 
effectively  brought  into  play  in  the  great  drama  of  war 
which  commenced  with  the  French  revolution  of  1789  and 
closed  with  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  The  magic  of  Eng- 
land's riches  defeated  the  gigantic  intellect  of  the  Corsican 
in  his  vast  design  and  purpose  to  Latinize  Europe  and 
to  replace  Teutonic  civilization,  the  evolution  of  ages,  with 
that  of  his  creative  mind. 

When  the  destructive  and  levelling  period  of  the  French 
revolution  had  closed,  and  Napoleon  had  inherited  the 
achievements  and  traditions  of  ten  long  centuries,  he  con- 
ceived the  reestablishment  of  the  Roman  empire  in  a  mod- 
ern form.  His  policy  towards  Germany  and  the  indom- 
itable stubbornness  with  which  he  assailed  England's 
economic  and  political  position  are  evidence  that  he  con- 
sidered the  dismemberment  of  the  organic  structures  of 
the  Teutonic  race  absolutely  necessary  to  the  success  of 
his  project  of  the  Latinization  of  Europe  and  of  universal 
dominion.  Charles  V,  in  cloister's  solitude,  and  Napoleon 
I  on  the  Rock  of  St.  Helena  each  meditated  over  the  folly 
of  challenging  the  moral  forces  of  a  race  by  everlasting 
fate  charged  with  the  apostleship  of  the  humane. 

The  peculiarity  of  Napoleon's  gigantic  intellect  appar- 
ently foreign  to  his  times  and  transmitted  from  the  age 
of  the  condottieri  and  Machiavellian  statesmanship,  was 
simply  the  product  of  his  tribal  descent,  of  the  environ- 
ments of  his  childhood  and  early  youth,  of  his  military 
education  under  the  ancient  regime,  and  of  the  revolu- 
tionary effervescence  of  the  period  during  which  his  mind 
matured.     In  his  character  he  combined  the  vindictiveness 


42  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  treachery  and  the  excessive  trust  and  natural  kind- 
ness of  heart  of  the  Corsican,  the  narrow  traits  of  the 
provincial  reared  amidst  genteel  poverty,  all  the  irnperi- 
ousness  and  hauteur  of  the  graduate  of  an  aristocratic 
military  academy,  and  the  stubbornness,  shyness  and  vin- 
dictive jealousy  of  tlie  poor  student  exposed  to  the  jests 
of  liis  rich  and  high  born  comrades.  Of  Latin  descent  he 
could  have  no  ideals,  no  higher  aspirations  than  to  serve 
State  and  Church  as  others  had  done  before  him.  Enter- 
ing into  manhood  during  a  revolutionary  period  of  extraor- 
dinary violence  and  passion,  he  became  the  victim  of 
conflicting  emotions.  He  loathed  the  bloodthirsty  and  un- 
couth rabble  and  despised  the  ranting,  querulous  and  su- 
perficial demagogues  of  liberty  who  inflamed  with  sopho- 
moric  affectations  of  the  humane  the  passions  of  the  mob 
and  trembled  before  its  fury.  Yet  his  ambition  and  the 
knowledge  of  his  genius  urged  him  on  to  join  the  carnival 
of  Gallic  vanity  and  brutishness  masked  with  the  caricature 
of  democracy.  His  indecision  and  extreme  youth  and  his 
employment  in  camp  saved  his  head.  The  marriage  with 
the  adventuress  Josephine  made  him  a  soldier  of  fortune 
on  a  scale  befitting  his  intellect.  He  achieved  extraordi- 
nary success  because  he  towered  intellectuallj^  far  above 
the  martinets  and  crack-brained  or  antiquated  politicians 
of  his  time.  Contemporaneous  history  and  the  legends  of 
a  reactionary  period  during  which  his  despoilers  earned 
the  curses  of  the  people,  measured  Napoleon's  greatness 
with  the  rule  applied  to  the  military  and  political  abilities 
of  his  pygmean  contemporaries  and  their  immediate  suc- 
cessors. Only  once  did  Napoleon  meet  his  equal  on  the 
battlefield  in  the  person  of  Charles,  Archduke  of  Austria. 
With  the  odds  largely  in  the  Corsican 's  favor,  he  was 
fairly  and  squarely  beaten, 

SECTION  m 

The  Corsican,  the  Refonnation,  and  the  Papacy.     The 

peculiarity  of  Napoleon's  genius  and  his  conception  of 
history  from  an  almost  exclusively  military  standpoint 
veiled  to  him  the  hidden  labyrinthian  thread  which  passes 
along  the  moral  life  of  nations.  He  did  not  discern,  or 
failed  to  appreciate,  the  psychological  forces  which  since 
the  Reformation  directed  the  political  aims  of  the  Teu- 
tonic  race.     Therefore,   the   decrees  ordering  the   exeeu- 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     43 

tion  of  the  German  patriot  and  publisher  Palm  and  laying 
an  embargo  on  England's  colonial  and  industrial  products, 
thougli  entirely  different  as  to  conception  and  purpose, 
had  the  same  effect.  The  one  was  intended  to  intimidate 
the  learned  estate  of  Germany  and  the  other  to  sap  Eng- 
land's financial  and  therewith  her  military  resources  and 
those  of  her  subsidized  allies.  By  the  one,  Napoleon  vio- 
lated the  moral  and  political  affections  and  by  the  other 
he  jeopardized  the  economic  and  political  benefits  issuing 
from  the  Reformation.  The  bullets  piercing  the  patriot's 
heart  struck  the  ideals  which  the  German  professors  and 
students  at  the  time  w^ere  setting  up  for  the  nation's 
deliverance  and  political  future.  The  decree  directed 
against  England's  trade  and  industry  adversely  affected 
the  prosperity  of  her  middle  class  and  therefore  imperilled 
its  social  position  only  gained  after  a  struggle  lasting  two 
centuries. 

While  Napoleon's  ambitious  designs  jeopardized  the 
spiritual  and  political  blessings  vouchsafed  to  the  Teutonic 
race  through  the  Reformation,  his  treatment  of  the  Papal 
question  was  erroneous  and  strangely  contradictory  of  his 
ultimate  purpose  of  reestablishment  of  the  Caesarian  Em- 
pire. Either  he  had  to  restore  the  Papacy  to  its  former 
spiritual  and  temporal  powers  and  make  it  a  coordinate 
agency  in  his  design  or  he  had  to  reduce  its  functions  to 
their  original  sphere,  to  the  bishopric  of  Rome.  Each 
mode  of  procedure  lay  in  his  power. 

In  France,  and  in  the  countries  overrun  by  the  armies  of 
the  French  republic,  the  Papacy  and  the  hierarchy  had 
been  stripped  of  every  vestige  of  political  power,  aye,  the 
Church  itself  had  been  out-lawed.  When  the  reign  of 
Terror  and  the  interregnum  of  anarchy  were  brought  to 
an  abrupt  ending,  the  one  with  the  execution  of  Robespierre 
and  the  other  with  Napoleon's  military  intervention,  and 
the  Roman  Church  was  to  be  reestablished  and  its  hierarchy 
restored,  the  new  government  of  France,  the  Directory, 
dared  not  to  apply  to  the  Apostolic  See  for  its  episcopal 
services  but  had  recourse  to  the  episcopal  character  of 
Talleyrand,  the  ex-Bishop  of  Autun,  to  transmit  it  to  the 
new  Bishops  and  to  celebrate  on  the  Champs  de  Mars  the 
first  ma.ss  after  the  short  reign  of  the  goddess  Reason. 
Lafayette,  who  commanded  the  National  Guard  on  parade, 
has  recounted  how  Talleyrand  when  approaching  the  altar 


44  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

with  tlio  saoretl  vessel  in  his  hands,  whispered  to  him,  "Do 
not  make  me  laugh."  Talleyrand  having  been  the  prime 
mover  of  the  decrees  out-lavving  the  Church  as  a  menace 
to  the  progress  of  the  human  race  and  having  participated 
in  the  atrocities  of  the  revolution,  appeared  to  the  Direc- 
tory to  be  the  proper  instrument  to  reestablish  the  reign 
of  superstition. 

Though  a  zealous  student  of  the  Ca-sarian  epoch  of  Roman 
history,  Napoleon  failed  to  draw  from  it  the  lesson  that 
such  an  empire  as  his  towering  ambition  contemplated,  to 
wit,  a  confederacy  of  the  Latin  nations  under  the  hegemony 
of  France,  with  members  of  his  family  as  his  pro-consuls, 
is  only  possible  under  a  ruler  who  unites  in  his  person  all 
the  attributes,  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  the  Pontifex 
Maximus.  Failing  to  draw  this  maxim  from  Roman  history 
and  that  of  his  race,  he  was  later  on  painfully  reminded  of 
its  truth  in  his  campaign  in  Russia.  There  he  met  with 
fanaticism  and  fatalism,  elements  of  character  always 
found  combined  and  present  where  an  autocrat  also  rules 
the  religious  conscience  of  his  people. 

SECTION   IV 

The  French  Revolution  of  1789.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  Napoleonic  era  greatly  benefited  the  nations  of 
Europe  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
It  left  a  lasting  impression  on  society,  while  the  revolu- 
tionary period  preceding  it  only  fleetingly  alfected  it  out- 
side of  France;  it  paralyzed  England's  efforts  to  reconquer 
the  United  States. 

All  things  soberly  considered,  the  value  of  the  French 
revolution  of  1789  as  a  propelling  force  in  the  progress  of 
the  human  race,  is  problematical.  In  the  first  place  the 
revolution  proceeded  not  from  great  moral  principles,  his- 
torically evolved,  and  consequently  could  not  develop  great 
moral  forces  directing  or  molding  civilization.  In  this 
respect,  the  revolutions  in  the  Netherlands,  in  England, 
and  in  North  America  were  of  far  greater  effect.  Sec- 
ondly, its  atrocities  and  barbarities,  and  its  extraordinary 
destructive  forces  were  the  causes  of  political  reaction  and 
of  militarism,  the  one  throwing  back  and  the  other  exhaust- 
ing the  nations  of  Europe.  From  a  careful  study  of  the 
intellectual,  economic,  and  political  condition  of  Europe 
and  particularly  of  France  preceding  the   revolutionary 


EXPULSION  OF  TIIE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE  45 

epoch,  it  appears  that  the  progressive  agencies  arising  from 
the  establishment  of  the  United  States  and  from  collective 
industry  would  have  assured  a  more  steady  and,  therefore, 
more  effective  and  lasting  advancement  of  the  civilized 
peoples  of  Europe.  The  revolutionary  effervescence  of 
France  from  1789-93  was  caused  by  a  generality  of  glit- 
tering ideas,  the  outflow  of  a  new  epoch  in  scientific  re- 
search and  literature ;  ideas  generally  discussed  and  there- 
fore misconceived  by  the  masses,  stirring  up  the  passion 
for  the  indiscriminate  overthrow  of  all  social  institutions. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  refonnatory  movement  which 
led  to  the  assemblage  of  the  French  States-general  would 
ever  have  turned  into  revolutionary  channels  and  closed 
with  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  if  the  economic  and 
social  necessities  of  the  learned  estate  had  not  imperatively 
demanded  a  reorganization  of  society.  As  already  men- 
tioned, the  French  civil  administration  was  more  or  less 
under  the  control  of  the  middle  class,  which  included  since 
the  reduction  of  feudalism  in  France,  her  lower  nobility. 
The  younger  sons  of  the  burghers  and  gentry  commonly 
received  a  University  education  and  after  graduation  en- 
tered the  service  of  the  State  and  Church.  After  the 
political  consolidation  of  the  French  monarchy,  civil  service 
reform  had  been  introduced  in  all  departments  of  the  civil 
service  and  to  a  degree  in  the  administration  of  the  Gallican 
Church,  The  establishment  of  a  bureaucracy  was  intended 
a.s  a  binding  element  within  the  organism  of  the  State. 
All  appointments  to  the  higher  offices  depended  on  a  higher 
education.  Strange  to  say,  in  appointments  to  the  ju- 
diciary and  in  the  administration,  Protestants  were  pre- 
ferred. This  policy  had  been  followed  from  the  times  of 
Richelieu  to  the  Regency;  it  had  been  the  secret  of  the 
orderly  administration  of  French  national  affairs.  It  was 
so  deeply  impressed  on  French  society,  that  Gallic  passion 
and  frivolity,  religious  strife  and  the  terrors  of  man}-  revo- 
lutions could  not  entirely  eradicate  it.  It  is  also  the  secret 
of  the  rapid  recuperation  of  France  after  every  violent 
shock  to  the  framework  of  her  society. 

Under  the  profligate  and  corrupt  reign  of  the  Regent 
and  Louis  XV,  the  extravagance  of  the  court  and  higher 
nobility  and  Law's  schemes  had  impoverished  the  upper 
classes  of  society  and  it  became  necessary  to  provide  for 
the  morally  and  financially  exhausted  courtiers  and  their 


46  CA8S0CK  AND  SWORD 

subsequent  existence  in  the  service  of  State  and  Church. 
Under  the  maladministration  of  the  royal  mistresses,  favor- 
ites and  procurers  wore  appointed  to  the  highest  offices 
and  to  episcopal  honors.  Of  course,  the  students  and  the 
otTu'ials  descended  from  the  middle  class  suffered  want  or 
netjlect;  they  could  no  lou'^'cr  find  a  proper  lod^mient  in 
the  social  scale  or  preferment;  they  were  threatened  with 
social  degradation  and  a  proletariat  future. 

Beginning  with  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Paris  and  other  cities  of  France  were  crowded  with  learned 
])roletarians  who  naturally  laid  bare  and  assailed  the  short- 
comings of  the  government  and  of  the  classes  hostile  to 
their  interests.  Pamphlets,  called  "Satyrs,"  were  pub- 
lished by  hundreds.  The  government  at  first  annoyed  and 
then  aroused  to  fury,  issued  as  reprisals  the  much  feared 
leti res-de-cachet,  w^arrants  without  process  of  law,  in  the 
American  sense  representing  "sweeping  injunctions"  and 
proclamations  of  the  President,  and  immured  the  authors 
in  the  Bastile.  Since  the  consolidation  of  the  monarchy 
the  learned  in  France  had  been  well  satisfied  with  their 
position  as  the  virtual  rulers  of  France.  When  royalty 
proscribed  the  learned,  it  became  a  question  of  "to  be  or 
not  to  be"  between  the  intellectual  powers  and  the  mon- 
archy. The  question  was  solved  on  the  guillotine.  The 
grievances,  ivhich  enlisted  the  learned  and  the  lower 
clergy  of  Germany  in  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  were  in 
France  the  propelling  forces  in  the  social  movement  which 
swept  the  ancient  regime  out  of  existence.  A  few  years 
before,  similar  grievances  had  been  the  leaven  in  the  move- 
ryient  of  the  NortJi- American  colonies  for  independence. 
Truly  the  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword;  possibly  it  needs 
not  another  appeal  to  the  passions  of  the  masses  to  convince 
society  that  the  pen  is  also  mightier  than  the  dollar. 

Through  passion,  and  from  the  increasing  friction  of 
rapidly  overtopping  events,  the  revolution  degenerated  into 
an  exposition  of  Gallican  vanity,  ferocious  race-hatred,  and 
pitiful  ambition.  The  rapacity  and  immorality  of  the 
armies  of  the  revolution,  overrunning  Europe,  speedily 
convinced  the  idealists  that  sanscullottism,  or  mob  rule 
en  masse,  the  Phrygian  cap,  and  other  emblems  of  political 
and  social  revolution,  do  not  always,  and  certainly  did  not 
then  represent  a  humane  endeavor. 

It  is  true  that  the  French  revolution  of  1789  swept  away 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     47 

the  rubbish  of  centuries,  but  in  its  logical  culmination, 
militarism  and  conquest,  it  caused  the  destruction  of  mil- 
lions of  lives  and  of  the  accumulated  wealth  of  generations, 
and  bequeathed  to  civilization  the  specter  of  anarchism, 
always  profitably  employed  by  the  reactionary  agencies  as 
a  powerful  stage-effect  to  curd  the  blood  of  the  Philistine 
and  to  prejudice  his  mind  against  all  and  every  social 
[(rogress.  The  lasting  political  achievement  of  the  French 
revolution  has  been  the  emancipation  de  jure  of  the  third 
estate  in  France,  unfortunately  though  at  the  beginning 
of  a  transitional  period  in  economics.  At  the  time  the 
middle  class  entered  into  political  rights,  it  also  entered 
into  collective  industry.  The  result  of  this  twofold  move- 
ment of  the  third  estate  was  the  loss  of  its  moral  equilibrium 
and  its  gradual  debasement  into  political  heresies  and  social 
immoralities  which  broke  loose  in  the  third  republic  of 
Panama  fame  and  of  the  Czar's  approval. 

Indirectly,  the  French  revolution  of  1789  caused  royalty 
to  acquiesce  in  semi-constitutional  government,  and  defined 
the  political  status  of  the  Papacy  as  a  police  agency  of  the 
great  Powers  and  of  the  classes  "to  taint  truth  with 
superstitions  and  traditions,"  that  the  masses  might  con- 
tinue to  place  their  hope  exclusively  in  the  hereafter  and 
forget  that  in  the  last  division  of  nature's  blessings,  they 
again  had  failed  to  secure  the  fruits  of  liberty. 

SECTION   V 

Compulsory  Education  and  Military  Service.  Europe 
is  also  indebted  to  the  French  revolution  for  the  revival  of 
two  institutions  far-reaching  in  their  effects:  compulsory 
education  and  military  service. 

In  1806  Napoleon  had  defeated  and  annihilated  the  army 
of  Prussia,  the  foremost  Protestant  power  on  the  continent, 
and  had  reduced  her  politically  and  geographically  to  insig- 
nificance. The  statesmen  then  called  upon  to  preserve  the 
little  kingdom  from  further  spoliation  or  extinction,  to 
husband  and  secretly  to  increase  its  military  resources,  were 
mindful  of  the  lessons  of  history  that  the  patriotism  of  the 
masses  and  all  that  pertains  to  the  humane  which  ordinarily 
lies  dormant  under  the  crust  of  ignorance  and  misery,  can 
only  be  aroused  by  an  appeal  to  the  ethical  forces  with 
which  the  learned  alone  may  control  the  mental  and  physi- 
cal powers  of  the  people.     To  secure  for  these  forces  the 


4S  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

most  effective  and  extended  application,  it  appeared  politic 
to  raise  the  standard  of  intelligence  of  the  masses.  There- 
fore, compulsory  education  and  a  perfected  system  of  public 
schools  became  a  necessity.  Prussia,  having  been  restricted 
by  Napoleon  in  the  maintenance  of  the  army  to  40,000  men, 
compulsory  military  service  was  enforced  to  increase  the 
combativeness  of  the  people  and  to  lull  the  suspicions  of 
the  Corsican.  On  these  two  systems  that  wond(>rful  insti- 
tution, the  German  army,  was  built  up.  After  the  Franco- 
German  War  pjurope  recognized  the  commanding  neces- 
sity to  copy,  at  least  j)artially,  the  example  set  by  Germany. 
\Vith  the  general  introduction  of  public  schools  the  seeds 
of  democracy  were  sown,  and  the  sapping  process  against 
superstition  and  Romanism  and  the  finale  of  the  Papal 
tragedy  commenced.  Under  compulsory  military  service 
the  people  are  bred  to  arms.  When  European  society  shall 
have  emerged,  shattered  and  levelled,  from  the  next  great 
war,  when  the  Teutonic  race  shall  have  once  more  and  for- 
ever destroyed  the  aggressive  power  of  France,  when  there- 
Avith  the  last  hope  of  the  Papacy  for  lasting  domicile  and 
dominion  in  Europe  shall  have  perished,  and  when  the 
Slavic  invasion  shall  again  have  been  beaten  back  and,  to 
save  the  civilization  of  Western  Europe,  the  Russian  Em- 
pire shall  have  been  disrupted,  then  the  peoples  in  arms 
will  insist  on  a  new  order  of  existence  and,  thenceforth,  will 
enjoy  all  the  economic  and  social  blessings  of  the  Reforma- 
tion under  institutions  that  will  represent  the  embodiment 
in  spirit  and  matter  of  democracy. 

SECTION  VI 

The  Heroes  of  Protestantism.  The  history  of  the 
Reformation  in  Europe  may  be  divided  into  three  periods: 
the  period  of  revolutionary  aggression,  the  period  of  de- 
fense against  dynastic  aggression,  and  the  period  of  racial 
aggression  in  the  age  of  science.  Each  period  was  marked 
with  military  and  political  genius,  with  the  lives  of  great 
men,  indelible  characters  whom  fame  has  crowned  with 
laurels  and  who  were  cast  in  the  heroic  mold  of  the  "Saga" 
and  the  "  Nibelungen. "  William  the  Silent  and  Crom- 
well, Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden,  and  Frederick  the 
Great,  Moltke  and  Bismarck  are  the  representative  charac- 
ters of  the  periods  of  the  Reformation,  the  very  incarna- 
tion of  its  ethics  and  those  of  their  race. 


EXPULSION  OF  niE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     49 

William  of  Orauge  and  Cromwell  firmly  planted  the 
banner  of  the  Reformation,  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Fred- 
erick defended  it  against  the  repeated  assaults  of  Romanism 
and  Latinism,  IMoltke  and  Bismarck  set  it  floating  over  the 
civilization  of  Europe.  When  we  turn  from  the  grave  of 
Harbarossa  to  the  grave  of  Bismarck,  our  mind  wanders 
through  six  centuries  of  struggle  against  the  Papacy,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end.  The  dirges  sung  at  the  grave  of 
Barbarossa  were  the  dirges  sung  at  the  grave  of  German 
unity  and  of  Teuton  democracy.  AVhen  future  generations 
of  the  Teutonic  race  shall  gather  at  Bismarck's  grave  to 
])ay  homage  to  the  memory  of  the  statesman  who  person- 
ilied  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation  at  last  triumphant,  the 
jnlgrims  may  sing  heroic  songs  of  the  unity  and  greatness 
of  their  race  and  of  the  victory  achieved  by  him  over 
mediipval  superstition  and  the  foes  of  mankind.  The  ped- 
estal on  which  his  statue  will  stand  is  the  Unity  of  Ger- 
many and  the  Triumph  of  Protestantism,  coveted  in  vain 
for  ages,  but  through  him  attained. 

SECTION    VII 

The  German  Universities,  Their  Intellectual,  Ethical 
and  Political  Influence.  After  two  centuries  of  inertness 
of  mind  and  soul,  with  the  close  of  foreign  invasion  and  the 
Napoleonic  era  of  oppression,  Germany  gathered  together 
all  the  elements  of  intellectual  and  moral  progress.  She 
recovered  the  endowments  of  her  race  and  the  spiritual 
achievements  of  the  Reformation  and  evolved  from  them  the 
philosophy  which  started  one  of  the  grandest  intellectual 
and  moral  movements  of  humanity.  Her  student  youth 
and  the  learned  strove  for  an  ideal  collective  humanity,  their 
aspiration.s  were  the  visions  of  the  enthusiast  and  the  poet's 
dream,  but  they  quickened  and  suffused  the  nation  with  the 
spirit  which  flows  from  a  divine  perception  of  man's 
rights  and  duties  binding  him  to  the  community  and  to  all 
mankind.  While  the  French  revolution  was  the  assertion 
of  long  suppressed  individualism,  the  revolution  which 
Germany's  students  and  philosophers  were  preparing  was 
to  attain  the  purpose  of  creation,  lifting  the  apathetic,  help- 
less, shapeless  mass  to  the  pinacle  of  the  humane.  They 
were  to  attain  that  which  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  so  tersely  expressed  "the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." 


60  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

The  learned  of  Germany  virtually  controlled  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  several  states.  They  were  governments 
by  the  learned  for  the  people.  Every  interest  was  made 
subservient  to  two  objects:  the  moral  and  intellectual  prog- 
ress of  the  people  and  their  military  education.  Never 
before  did  any  single  estate  in  so  short  a  time,  within  two 
generations  dated  from  Waterloo,  and  in  such  a  silent  and 
orderly  manner  so  thoroughly  revolutionize  a  nation  in  its 
intellectual,  moral,  and  physical  relations.  After  the  battle 
of  Waterloo,  Germany  was  in  a  chaotic  condition,  depopu- 
lated, impoverished,  rent,  and  sandwiched  between  hostile 
powers.  P^ifty  years  later  her  administration  was  as 
nearly  perfect  as  human  nature  could  make  it  and  possessed 
of  an  esprit  de  corps,  the  embodiment  of  honor,  her  public 
schools  were  conducted  on  scientific  principles,  her  univer- 
sities were  the  centers  of  learning  and  research,  her  re- 
sources were  carefully  husbanded  and  developed,  and  prep- 
arations were  made  to  enter  successfully  into  collective 
industry^  and  to  compete  for  the  commerce  of  the  world — as 
soon  as  the  dream  of  six  centuries,  unity,  should  have  been 
realized.  From  the  ABC  school  to  university  graduation, 
in  the  family  and  in  the  church,  in  the  workshop  and  in 
the  barracks,  from  childhood's  play  to  maturity  the  youth 
was  taught  his  destiny :  to  sacrifice  his  life  on  the  altar  of 
the  Fatherland  and  to  prepare  for  the  final  struggle  with 
the  nation's  archenemies,  the  Gaul,  the  Cossack,  and  the 
demon  Popery.  The  German  nation  in  arms  was  a  creation 
of  the  learned.  The  nation  and  the  army  were  one  and 
inseparable ;  their  inspirations  they  drew  from  the  univer- 
sities which  were  the  brain,  the  heart,  and  the  soul  of  both. 

SECTION  vni 

Bismarck.  Bismarck's  conception  of  things  and  of  men, 
of  nations  and  their  relations  to  each  other,  were  those  of 
the  master  mind  and  not  of  the  Liliputian  style ;  his  states- 
manship was  of  that  character  which  looks  fore  and  aft, 
takes  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  lessons  of  history,  its 
teachings  by  example,  and  applies  them  to  its  own  times 
and  nation.  There  is  a  truism  Bismarck  took  to  heart — 
viz :  that  only  those  statesmen  did  succeed  and  built  perma- 
nently who  used  the  resources  of  the  people  to  realize  such 
ideas  as  were  embodied  in  the  people  and  had  their  origin 
in  the  ethics  of  their  race. 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     51 

As  a  careful  student  of  history  Bismarck  echoed  the 
voice  of  centuries  charging  Papacy  with  his  nation's  eco- 
nomic and  political  misfortunes.  From  a  historical  stand- 
point he  accepted  as  his  guiding  principle  that  the  unity  of 
Germany  and  her  safety  depended  on  the  triumph  of 
Protestantism  in  Germany  and  on  the  exclusion  of  the 
Papacy  from  Europe.  Consequently  all  his  efforts  were 
directed  against  the  Papacy;  its  downfall  was  his  special 
goal.  Therefore  his  foreign  policy  had  these  objective 
points:  the  exclusion  of  Catholic  Austria  from  Germany; 
the  disruption  of  France  as  the  foremost  Catholic  and  Latin 
power;  and  the  unification  of  Italy  with  Rome  as  her  cap- 
ital. To  secure  the  fruits  of  success  and  Teuton  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization  from  assault  by  the  Asiaticizing  tend- 
ency and  ever  growing  powers  of  Russia,  her  disruption 
became  an  important  factor  in  all  his  calculations  as  to 
the  future  political  conditions  of  Europe,  though  an  ag- 
gressive policy  against  the  Czar's  empire  appeared  not 
an  immediate  necessity  but  one  of  opportunities,  whenever 
the  influx  of  moral  ideas  and  economic  agencies  should  have 
corroded  the  fetters  which  confine  the  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments of  Russia  in  a  body  politic. 

From  these  conclusions  all  of  Bismarck's  political  move- 
ments, his  domestic  and  foreign  policy  must  be  judged. 
He  succeeded  in  ousting  Austria  and  therewith  to  block 
the  game  which  Papal  diplomacy  played  in  the  relations 
of  the  minor  German  states  to  each  other  and  to  the  fed- 
eral government  and  to  clear  the  path  for  a  closer  federa- 
tion. He  defeated  France  and  revived  the  German  empire, 
the  dream  of  the  German  idealists  and  youth.  He  nego- 
tiated the  treaty  of  Frankfort  with  the  mental  reservation 
that  under  a  republican  form  of  government  the  passions 
of  the  Gaul  would  rend  France  asunder.  The  prompt  and 
bloody  suppression  of  the  Commune  in  1871,  the  efferves- 
cence of  the  spirit  of  revenge,  and  the  extraordinary  recu- 
perative powers  of  the  French  people  made  France  again  a 
military  power  of  the  first  order. 

This  unexpected  result  of  the  war  of  1870  led  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  Triple- Alliance  to  Protect  Germany's  Eastern 
frontier  and  to  better  utilize  the  revolutionary  forces  of 
Poland  and  if  necessary  those  of  Italy. 


52  CASSOCK  AND  SWUKD 

SECTION   IX 

The   Eastern   Question   and   the   Eastern    Pope.     The 

Eiistorn  question  had  its  origin  in  the  growtli  of  tlie  Rus- 
sian empire,  and  Peter  the  Great  stood  sponsor  at  its 
cradle;  it  is  the  exereseenee  of  the  policy,  inaugurated  by 
Peter,  and  so  religiously  followed  up  by  his  successors,  and 
it  may  be  safely  said  that  the  very  existence  of  the  Russian 
empire,  as  now  constituted,  and  the  reign  of  the  house  of 
RomanotT  depend  on  this  policy,  the  avowed  object  of  which 
is  the  dismemberment  of  the  Ottoman  and  Austrian  Em- 
pires and  the  conquest  of  China  and  the  Indies.  The  con- 
quest of  Constantinople  is  the  manifest  destiny  of  the 
rulers  of  Russia,  and  has  been  so  considered  over  a  thou- 
sand years.  The  possession  of  this  city  is  the  objective 
point  of  Russian  policy  in  Europe.  It  is  a  magnificent 
dream  and  once  realized,  Russia  rules  the  Eastern  world. 

Constantinople  is  to  the  Czars  what  Rome  is  to  the  Popes. 
Once  in  possession  of  Constantinople  the  Slavic  empire 
would  overshadow  Europe  and  conquer  the  Indies,  China 
and  Japan.     It  would  reach  further  East. 

When  Germany  was  merely  a  union  of  the  loosest  char- 
acter, and  as  such,  in  fact,  was  powerless,  Russia  held  it  to 
be  a  wise  policy  and  one  furthering  her  interest  to  assume 
the  character  of  a  protector,  and  thus  by  the  weight  of  her 
influence  and  the  artifices  so  peculiar  to  her  diplomacy  to 
frustrate  every  attempt  by  the  German  people  for  real 
unity  and  constitutional  government.  The  Holy  Alliance 
entered  into  by  Russia,  Austria  and  Prussia  at  Vienna  in 
1815,  ostensibly  for  mutual  protection  against  the  Prisoner 
of  St.  Helena,  was  generated  in  the  fertile  brain  of  Nessel- 
rode  for  this  very  purpose.  The  Holy  Alliance  served  well 
its  unholy  purposes  until  the  year  1848,  when  German 
unity  was  nearly  attained  by  the  action  of  a  revolutionary 
Assembly.  "William  IV  of  Prussia,  w'ith  the  advice  of 
Emperor  Nicholas  of  Russia,  refused  to  accept  the  imperial 
crown  of  United  Germany  and  the  revolutionary  movement 
expired ;  yet  it  became  apparent  to  Russia's  statesmen,  well 
knowing  that  patriotic  and  progressive  ideas,  once  gen- 
erated, will  forever  live  and  finally  become  substantiated, 
that  the  Protestant  house  of  Hohenzollern  formed  already 
too  strong  a  nucleus  in  case  Prussia  became  fully  aware  of 
her  mission,  or  another  Frederick  the  Great  came  to  rule 
her.    But  Prussia  once  reduced  to  a  second  or  third  rate 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     53 

Power,  this  danger  to  Russian  policy  was  forever  removed. 
To  this  end  Nicholas  I  entered  into  an  alliance  with  France 
and  Austria  (the  latter  paying  the  price  for  the  subjuga- 
tion of  Hungary),  it  being  agreed  upon  that  France 
should  annex  the  Rhenish  provinces,  Austria  Silesia,  and 
Russia  Posen  and  Prussia  proper.  The  allied  armies, 
with  the  exception  of  the  French,  had  taken  up  their 
strategical  positions  in  Poland  and  Bohemia  before  Prussia 
became  cognizant  of  the  danger  threatening  her  very  exist- 
ence. A  lavish  expenditure  of  money  and  the  quick  resolve 
to  again  revolutionize  Poland  and  Hungary  and  to  subsi- 
dize the  radical  parties  in  France  averted  the  danger,  but 
this  so  upset  the  equanimity  of  Nicholas  that  at  a  confer- 
ence in  AVarsaw  he  struck  the  Count  of  Brandenburg,  the 
uncle  of  William  I  and  Prussia's  secret  diplomatic  agent. 
The  Count  immediately  returned  to  Berlin  and  there, 
after  having  duly  reported  the  disgraceful  occurrence,  shot 
himself  on  the  day  of  his  arrival,  November  6,  1850.  The 
Court  Journal  reported  his  death  as  the  result  of  a  rupture 
of  the  heart.  Since  then  it  is  the  tradition  of  the  house 
of  Hohenzollern  that  the  blow  struck  at  the  honor  of  the 
royal  house  must  be  avenged. 

Twice  before  Russia  made  advances  to  France  to  divide 
Europe  between  them.  In  his  memoirs  Napoleon  I  says: 
"  Alexander  proposed  the  partition  of  the  Ottoman  em- 
pire, and  in  case  I  assented  would  have  guaranteed  my 
possessions  in  Germany."  Constantinople  always  saved 
the  Porte.  In  a  letter,  dated  Tsarsko  Selo,  November  6, 
1829,  Nicholas  proposed  to  Charles  X  of  France  another 
partition.  He  said:  "  You  are  not  in  possession  of  your 
natural  frontiers,  therefore  you  are  not  a  first  rate  power. 
Advance  your  lines  to  the  Rhine,  and  across  the  Alps  and 
the  Pyrenees,  and  France  is  constituted."  Nicholas  de- 
manded Constantinople.  In  his  answer,  declining  the 
offer,  dated  St.  Cloud,  January  25,  1830,  Charles  X  says: 
' '  Besides  you  invite  me  to  a  residence  the  key  of  which  you 
intend  to  keep  in  your  pocket." 

In  1870  the  non-intervention  of  Russia  in  favor  of  France 
was  a  political  blunder  which  even  the  Russian  populace 
was  quick  to  perceive.  Since  then  public  opinion  in  Rus- 
sia underwent  a  change  in  favor  of  France,  looked  upon  as 
the  natural  ally.  The  Russian  government  felt  the  tre- 
mendous blows  with  which  Russian  policy  was  battered  on 


54  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  battlefields  of  France.  Russia  then  was  not  ready  for 
war.  Otherwise  she  would  never  have  consented  to  the 
acquisition  of  Metz  and  Strassburg  by  Germany  through 
which  this  Power  covered  its  Western  frontier  for  a  defen- 
sive war,  and  thus  will  be  enabled  to  light  with  two  fronts 
and  to  mass  the  bulk  of  its  forces  on  the  strategical  line 
of  the  Vistula. 

At  one  time  during  the  early  stages  of  the  war  the  stu- 
pendous successes  of  the  German  army  aroused  the  Russian 
government  to  the  full  extent  of  the  danger  threatening  its 
policy  in  the  future,  and  an  aide-de-camp  of  the  Czar  was 
sent  to  German  headquarters  instructed  to  demand  the 
acceptance  of  certain  proposals  made  by  the  Russian  cabinet 
aiming  at  a  settlement  between  France  and  Germany.  The 
situation  became  critical,  and  Bismarck  was  quick  to  per- 
ceive the  danger  to  its  full  extent;  but  his  sagacity  and 
force  of  character  were  equal  to  the  emergency.  The  an- 
swer given  to  the  Russian  aide-de-camp  at  once  had  the 
desired  effect — the  withdrawal  of  the  proposals.  Bismarck 
said: — "His  Majesty  the  King  of  Prussia  cannot  accept 
your  proposals.  I  have  advised  my  august  Sovereign  to 
order  the  Fifth  army  corps  and  General  Steinmetz  to  our 
Eastern  frontier  in  case  you  should  not  receive  instruc- 
tions to  withdraw  your  proposals  within  a  reasonable 
time. "  If  it  is  considered  that  at  the  time  this  army  corps 
was  entirely  composed  of  Poles,  the  significance  of  the 
answer  becomes  apparent. 

SECTION    X 

The  Russian-French  Alliance  and  England's  Politicians. 
After  the  conclusion  of  the  treat}^  of  Frankfort  and  the 
restoration  of  order  in  France,  President  Thiers  negoti- 
ated through  General  Fleury  with  the  Russian  Chancellor 
General  Gortchakoff  an  entente  pledging  the  assistance  of 
France  to  Russia's  oriental  policy  with  the  understanding 
that  she  would  use  her  good  offices  to  prevent  a  second 
invasion  of  France.  The  agreement  was  not  of  the  nature 
of  a  provisional  treaty;  though  it  was  without  fixed  or 
binding  elements,  yet,  it  was  considered  a  preliminary  to 
the  negotiation  of  an  alliance.  The  exchange  of  the  rati- 
fications took  place  at  Nice,  October  2,  1871.  Copies  of 
the  agreement  were  then  already  in  the  hands  of  Bismarck 
and  Moltke.     They  immediately  prepared  for  another  war 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     55 

against  France  before  her  army  and  that  of  Russia,  then 
scattered  over  an  immense  territory,  could  be  reorganized. 
In  this,  England's  diplomacy,  adroitly  employing  the  am- 
bition of  a  woman,  crossed  Bismarck's  path. 

After  the  Franco-German  war,  the  English  manufac- 
turers and  merchants  were  suddenly  confronted  with  Ger- 
man competition.  Having  paid  no  attention  to  the  silent 
preparations  which  the  German  governments  had  made 
since  1850  to  enable  their  people  to  enter  successfully  into 
collective  industry  and  the  world's  commerce,  such  as  the 
establishment  of  mercantile,  maritime  and  industrial  schools 
of  every  grade,  and  to  the  immense  intellectual  progress 
of  the  German  nation  during  a  period  of  democratic  exal- 
tation and  ethical  culture,  the  dwarfed  intellect  of  Eng- 
land's counting-room  statesmen  found  the  solution  of  the 
perplexing  question  in  the  indemnity  paid  by  France  to 
Germany  and  in  her  territorial  enlargement.  Therefore 
they  felt  bound  to  resist  the  further  aggrandizement  of 
Germany  and  in  the  paltry  "Gladstonian  spirit"  rather 
jeopardized  England's  political  future  to  Russian  and 
French  aggressions  than  to  forego  the  traders'  immediate 
profits  and  to  miss  the  opportunity  for  revenge  on  a  states- 
man who,  as  they  well  knew,  despised  them  as  intellectual 
manikins  and  creatures  of  the  accidents  of  party  politics 
and  of  the  marts  and  by-ways  of  popular  ferment,  unable 
to  profit  from  the  past,  to  secure  a  reasonable  tenure  of 
office  for  creative  purposes,  or  to  frame  under  the  changed 
conditions  of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  a 
comprehensive  foreign  policy  looking  to  the  lasting  great- 
ness of  England  true  to  her  history  and  evolved  from  the 
racial  characteristics  and  traditions  of  her  people. 

Unfortunately  for  Germany  and  the  cause  of  the  Refor- 
mation at  this  critical  period  the  Crown-Princess  of  that 
country  was  an  English  woman  whose  pernicious  meddling 
in  politics  Bismarck  had  more  than  once,  often  ungallantly, 
rebuked.  At  the  great  age  of  William  I  having  the  Im- 
perial crown  within  easy  reach,  and,  therefore,  possessed 
of  a  natural  aversion  towards  every  political  movement 
endangering  its  stability,  this  woman  filled  the  old  Em- 
peror's mind,  who  was  fast  approaching  his  dotage,  with 
misgivings  as  to  the  outcome  of  a  war  with  Russia  and 
France.  England's  selfishness  and  a  woman's  spite  iso- 
lated England  and  exposed  her  to  the  combined  assault  by 


50  CASSOCK  AXn  SWORD 

these  countries.  Once  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  an- 
other war  with  France  as  a  lirst  class  military  power  Bis- 
marck zealously  maintained  the  entente  cordial  with 
Russia. 

SECTION    XI 

William  II  and  Bismarck's  Russian  Policy.  This  fea- 
ture of  Jiisuuirck's  policy  was  the  real  tliough  hidden  cause 
of  his  retirement  from  office.  William  II,  in  the  self-con- 
sciousness and  imperiousness  of  youth,  exalted  by  ambition 
and  tradition,  urged  onward  by  the  military  court-party 
and  English  intrigues,  and  thirsting  for  glory  thought  it 
possible  to  face  the  arch-enemies  of  his  empire  at  the  same 
time  and  to  beat  them  iu  a  campaign  with  two  fronts. 
The  poor  condition  of  the  Italian  army,  the  unwillingness 
of  the  German  people  to  entrust  the  fate  of  the  nation  into 
the  keeping  of  an  inexperienced  youth,  the  ever  swelling 
chorus  of  public  discontent  and  condemnation  of  the  policy 
of  ingratitude,  and  the  corroding  belief,  manifesting  itself 
everywhere,  that  the  ship  of  state  was  drifting  rudderless 
on  the  current  of  mediocraey  to  wanton  destruction  gave 
Avarning  of  impending  danger  to  the  house  of  HohenzoUern 
and  to  the  young  emperor  the  second  sober  thought. 

Through  the  reconciliation  of  the  ex-Chancellor,  Wil- 
liam II  escaped  the  inexorable  judgment  of  history,  and 
the  cause  of  Protestantism  was  again  advanced  on  the  road 
to  final  and  complete  triumph.  The  imposing  demonstra- 
tion of  patriotism  and  gratitude  with  which  Bismarck  was 
received  in  the  German  capital  and  the  imperial  honors 
paid  to  him  by  William  II  foreshadowed  the  future  policy 
of  the  German  empire :  to  sacrifice  every  consideration  for 
one  purpose,  the  defeat  of  France  and  through  it  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Papacy  from  Europe  and  the  disruption  of 
Russia.  The  solution  of  the  Russian  or  Asiatic  question 
may  be  safely  left  to  the  future.  Every  year  passing  into 
time,  every  progress  in  civilization,  each  territorial  acqui- 
sition with  the  exception  of  Constantinople,  and  particu- 
larly that  of  every  stretch  of  sea-coast,  all  commercial 
treaties,  the  increase  and  perfection  of  the  army  and  the 
growth  of  maritime  power  weaken  the  slav  eolo&sus  stand- 
ing on  feet  of  clay.  If  left  to  the  ravages  of  time  and  the 
sapping  process  of  Western  ideas  the  Russian  empire  will 
fall  by  its  own  weight.     Furthermore,  whenever  the  Papal 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     57 

question  shall  have  been  solved,  the  reintegration  of  the 
Polish  empire  to  its  former  territorial  extent  Eastward 
will  paralyze  Kussia's  military  strength  and  create  a 
butfer-state  capable  of  repelling  the  invasion  of  the  Asiatic 
hordes.  Absolutism  and  its  sequence,  corruption,  nihilism 
and  famine  will  work  the  ruin  of  Peter  the  Great's  cre- 
ation. The  manifest  destiny  of  Holy  Russia  cannot  be  the 
destruction  of  the  higher  civilization  of  Western  Europe 
or  the  control  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea;  it  is  the  subju- 
gation of  the  peoples  and  roaming  tribes  of  Middle  Asia 
and  their  conversion  to  Christianity  and  its  civilization. 

SECTION   XII 

The  Anarchists  and  the  Political  Papacy.  Bismarck's 
policy  has  been  thoroughly  understood  by  the  Papal  cama- 
rilla and  the  Jesuits.  It  was  by  them  thoroughly  under- 
stood, when  they  attempted  his  assassination  by  an  ig- 
norant zealot,  when  they  opened  the  sluice-gates  of  the 
reactionary  and  sensational  press  the  world  over  to  dis- 
credit him,  when  all  the  wiles  of  priestcraft  were  employed 
against  him,  when  the  leader  of  the  ultramontane  or  black 
party  in  the  German  Parliament,  Windhorst,  played  the 
nefarious  game  which  was  the  direct  cause  of  Bismarck's 
retirement.  Hardly  had  the  giant  of  anti-Roman  politics 
disappeared  from  the  political  stage,  apparently  discredited 
forever,  when  the  Papal  blessings  were  bestowed  on  an- 
archical France  and  her  corrupt,  immoral,  and  atheistic 
politicians. 

Astute  Leo  XIII  suddenly  became  a  convert  to  repub- 
licanism and  sacrificed  at  the  altar  of  Papal  ambition  the 
unfortunate  Catholic  Poles  and  gave  them  over  to  the 
mercies  of  the  Czar,  to  the  tortures  of  the  knout  and  to 
the  lingering  anguish  of  death  in  the  mines  and  snow  clad 
wilderness  of  Siberia,  that  the  Cossack  of  the  Eastern 
Pope  might  hob-nob  with  the  Gaul  of  the  Western  Pope, 
and  that  the  unholy  alliance  of  barbarous  Russia  and 
chauvinistic  France  might  crush  the  civilization  of  the 
Teuton  and  Anglo-Saxon  and  Protestantism  ad  majorem 
Dei  gloriam — to  enable  the  Papacy  to  maintain  its  foot- 
hold in  Europe. 

That  the  Papal  camarilla  is  aware  of  its  impending  fate 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Its  change  of  front  in  its  hypo- 
critical professions  of  sympathy  with  republican  institu- 


58  CASSOCK  AOT)  SWORD 

tions,  its  secret  connection  with  the  anarchists  to  whom  it 
extended  the  hand  of  fellowship  supplyin^jf  the  vagabonds 
and  rascals  of  dynamite  fame  with  fundvS,  the  pious  offer- 
ings of  Peter's  pence,  for  the  nefarious  and  death-dealing 
game;  the  mission  of  SartoUi  and  his  successors  to  the 
United  States  as  advance  agents  and  quartermasters,  and 
its  policy  toward  tiie  Italian  government  and  people  are 
am])le  proof. 

The  infernal  character  of  Papal  interference  in  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  Italian  nation  has  l^een  evinced  by 
the  instigation  of  the  anarchical  outbreaks  in  Sicily  and 
other  parts  of  Italy.  It  has  been  clearly  demonstrated 
that  the  threads  of  the  foul  conspiracy  were  held  and 
pulled  by  a  Romish  priest  enjoying  the  confidence  of  the 
Pope,  and  that  cathedral  cannon  rung  out  the  tocsin  to 
rouse  the  people  into  insurrection.  Shortly  before  the  out- 
break occurred,  an  article  w'as  published  in  a  Paris  journal 
called  the  Paix  Sociale,  foreshadowing  the  insurrection  and 
outlining  the  hopes  of  the  Papacy.  The  article  proposed 
the  reestablishment  of  the  Papal  States  and  the  division 
of  Italy  into  nine  sovereign  States  autonomous  in  domestic 
matters  and  confederated  only  for  purposes  of  commerce 
and  of  foreign  policy  under  the  directory  of  His  Holiness 
the  Pope. 

Deeply  scrutinizing  the  political  events  of  the  few  years 
preceding  1894  one  becomes  convinced  of  an  understanding 
having  been  between  Russia,  France  and  the  Papacy  in 
relation  to  an  early  European  war  and  the  policy  of  these 
Powers  in  case  of  a  successful  issue.  Russia  was  to  take 
possession  of  Constantinople  and  of  Asia  wdth  the  excep- 
tion of  further  India,  France  to  restore  the  Patrimonium 
Petri  and  to  extend  her  frontiers  as  proposed  by  Nicholas  I 
and  her  dominion  over  Africa.  The  part  assigned  to  the 
Papacy  in  the  drama  of  war,  or  rather  in  its  mounting, 
was  the  instigation  of  a  rebellion  in  Italy  of  such  dimen- 
sions as  to  employ  for  its  suppression  all  the  energies  of 
the  Italian  army  and  therewith  set  it  hors  de  combat  and 
withhold  it  effectively  from  the  theater  of  war.  The 
Papac}'  is  well  aware  that  the  first  shot  fired  in  a  European 
war,  in  which  Italy  under  the  present  form  of  government 
takes  part,  is  the  signal  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Papacy 
from  Italy  and  the  establishment  of  a  National  Church. 
The  Papacy  had  done  the  work  assigned  to  it.     The  unex- 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     59 

pected  appearance  of  Bismarck  on  the  political  stage,  the 
discovery  made  in  France  that  under  the  regime  of  the 
statesmen  of  Panama  fame  corruption  had  undermined 
the  efficiency  of  the  army  and  embezzled  the  millions  pro- 
vided for  the  equipment  of  the  fleet,  the  fortresses,  and 
army  magazines,  the  famine  and  pestilence  in  Russia,  the 
embargo  suddenly  laid  by  Germany  and  Austria  on  Rus- 
sian agricultural  products,  and  the  corresponding  appalling 
distress  of  the  Bojars  threatening  the  dynasty  of  the 
Romanoffs,  and  the  character  of  the  outbreak  in  Italy 
which  clearly  showed  that  the  Papacy,  though  able  to  call 
at  will  the  spirits  of  anarchism  was  not  able  to  control  or 
to  banish  them,  were  events  which  imperatively  commanded 
a  halt.  European  society  had  recognized  the  fact  that  the 
Papacy  had  again  been  ready  to  bring  about  the  European 
cataclysm. 

SECTION   XIII 

Italy,  the  Papacy,  and  the  Triple-Alliance.  When 
Italy  reached  the  height  of  her  political  power  through  a 
concourse  of  international  circumstances  largely  of  Bis- 
marck's creation,  in  the  programme  of  the  future  he  as- 
signed to  her  as  a  Catholic  Power  the  execution  of  the 
tinale  in  the  Papal  tragedy,  and,  in  the  reconstruction  or 
readjustment  of  European  society,  the  leadership  of  the 
Latin  race. 

Papal  and  Bourbon  government  had  left  Italian  society 
in  a  chaotic  condition.  Failing  to  profit  by  the  example 
set  by  teutonic  Prussia  sixty  years  before  and  without  a 
learned  estate  educated  in  universities  free  from  all  clerical 
supervision,  Italy  gradually  exhausted  her  national  re- 
sources and  suffered  more  than  any  European  nation  from 
the  curse  of  Latinism  and  Parliamentarism,  from  corrup- 
tion, the  seeds  of  which  were  sown  by  the  priesthood  and 
had  ripened  in  the  hotbeds  of  ignorance  and  superstition, 
legacies  of  Papal  and  Bourbon  misrule.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent, it  is  undoubtedly  true,  Italy  was  made  forty-three 
years  ago  as  much  in  spite  of,  as  in  consequence  of,  the 
revolutionary  actiyity  of  Mazzini  and  his  associates.  Yet, 
the  most  intelligent  of  his  compatriots  supported  the  house 
of  Savoy  and  opposed  with  all  their  might  the  Papal  en- 
deavor to  ferment  into  a  passion  what  the  Germans  call 
"Particularism"    and   the   Americans   "Secession,"    with 

4 


60  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  result  that  the  all-adjusting  hand  of  time  may  weld  the 
kinfrdoin  into  a  pcnuine  national  life. 

The  Italian  i)atriots  who  had  survived  the  revolutionary 
period  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  government  of  their 
country  were  also  convinced  that  the  defeat  of  Germany 
would  be  the  signal  for  the  disruption  of  Italy,  that  French 
intervention  would  result  in  the  restoration  of  the  Papacy 
and  the  rending  asunder  of  Italy.  Some  forty-five  years 
ago  Crispi,  while  a  deputy,  was  arrested  by  order  of  Cavour 
as  a  Mazzinist  and  Idealist  opposing  or  obstructing  the 
orderly  process  of  the  unification  of  Italy.  Since  then  the 
Italian  statesmen  have  moved  forward  in  their  political 
convictions  and,  wath  Crispi,  the  Italian  premier,  have 
come  to  recognize  as  their  paramount  duty  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Papacy  from  Italy  in  order  to  secure  for  her 
people  lasting  security,  peace  and  prosperity.  To  this  end 
the  foreign  policy  of  Ital}^  must  be  directed  against  France 
while  giving  energetic  support  to  the  Triple-Alliance. 

Italian  statesmen  know  too  well  that,  now  as  well  as  in 
1849,  the  professions  of  republicanism  in  France  have  not 
expunged  her  traditions  of  a  thousand  years  and,  there- 
fore, will  not  prevent  the  French  Bourgeoisie,  whenever  it 
shall  appear  to  their  interest,  to  sustain  the  Vatican  in  the 
policy  of  making  the  position  of  the  Italian  sovereign  in- 
tolerable in  Rome.  It  is  an  open  secret  that  the  establish- 
ment of  a  military  dictatorship  by  Boulanger,  a  puppet  in 
the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  would  have  been  followed  by 
French  intervention  in  Rome.  Capitalism  in  France, 
which  actually  prescribes  her  policy,  to  secure  its  privi- 
leges and  to  exploit  and  to  extend  its  opportunities,  is  ever 
willing  to  pay  a  high  price  for  the  support  of  the  Papacy. 
The  outrages  of  the  anarchists,  always  opportunely  serving 
the  Papal  policy  in  the  Latin  countries,  scare  the  French 
Bourgeois  out  of  his  wits.  France  with  respect  to  the  re- 
lations of  Church  and  State  will  again  slowly  drift  into  a 
reactionary  policy.  The  formal  order  to  the  French  Cath- 
olics to  accept  the  French  republic  and  the  insurrections 
in  Italy  were  in  close  relation  with  and  part  of  the  Latin- 
slavic  scheme  of  a  redivision  of  Europe. 

SECTION   XIV 

Gladstone — His      Pro-Roman      Policy     and     Ireland. 

There  are  two  other  powerful  agencies  which  eventually 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     61 

will  assist  the  German-Italian  policy  of  removing  the 
Papacy  from  Europe.  Notwithstanding  the  present  idiotic 
foreign  policy  of  the  British  statesmen  England  is  menaced 
by  Russia,  France,  and  the  Papacy,  the  latter  absolutely 
controlling  the  political  action  of  the  Irish  people.  Since 
England  became  one  of  the  great  Powers  of  Europe  her 
government  relied  for  defensive  and  offensive  purposes  on 
her  navy  and  on  the  military  strength  of  Germany.  Be- 
cause of  the  change  in  naval  warfare  and  armaments  the 
military  efficiency  and  therefore  the  unity  of  Germany  is 
England's  only  salvation.  So  long  as  Germany  is  able  to 
act  as  a  covering  party  against  France  and  Russia,  Eng- 
land will  be  able  to  protect  her  military  routes,  to  repel 
an  invasion,  and  to  stop  the  progress  of  Russia  in  Asia. 

The  foreign  policy  of  England  is  to-day  more  than  ever 
dictated  by  the  mercantile  and  manufacturing  interests  of 
the  middle  class  and  by  Capitalism  and  consequently  is 
neither  dignified  nor  of  broad  conception.  It  is  the  policy 
of  the  trader  and  money-changer,  a  peddler's  policy,  selfish, 
cowardly  and  divergent  from  every  tradition  of  English 
history.  It  imperils  England's  future  to  profit  for  the 
moment.  Her  internal  policy  too,  of  late,  has  given  great 
comfort  to  her  enemies — France  and  Russia. 

The  present  anti-German  policy  of  England's  ruling 
classes  really  dates  from  the  times  of  huckstering  Man- 
chester and  blustering  Brummagem,  of  the  Grand  Old 
Talker,  Gladstone,  the  archetype  of  the  modern  parlia- 
mentarian of  whom  Huxley  says:  ''that  he  is  endowed 
with  that  mellifluous  eloquence  which,  under  a  representa- 
tive form  of  government  leads  far  more  surely  than  worth, 
capacity,  or  honest  work,  to  the  highest  places  in  Church 
and  State." 

True  to  his  Celtic  descent  Gladstone  had  brushed  aside 
the  traditions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  had  neutralized  the 
beneficial  results  of  the  English  revolution  and  of  Crom- 
well's Irish  policy,  had  set  his  bourgeois  conception  of 
men  and  things  and  his  ever  ready  tongue  w^agging  against 
the  experience  drawn  from  centuries  of  English  history. 
His  inordinate  vanity  and  ambition  had  inoculated  him 
with  infidelity  to  his  country's  weal.  The  decision  must 
be  left  to  history  whether  knowingly  or  not  he  has  been 
the  agent  and  instrument  of  the  Jesuitical  policy  of  rule 
or  ruin,  of  its  avowed  purpose  of  either  Romanizing  Eng- 


62  CAS.SOCK  AND  SWORD 

land  or  of  destroying  her  empire.  The  Home  Rule  Bill 
\vhieh  this  perverter  of  Anglo-Saxon  policy  and  mounte- 
bank of  liberalism  attempted  to  pass  would  have  been  a 
wedge  driven  by  Jesuitism  to  the  very  core  of  English 
society  and  into  the  imperial  system  of  the  government  of 
Great  Britain.  Home  Rule  granted  to  Ireland  must  result 
in  the  building  up  of  a  hostile  state,  a  dependency  of  the 
Papacy  ever  useful  and  handy  to  intimidate  England's 
statesmen  and  Parliament  and  to  paralyze  the  functions  of 
her  government.  It  will,  in  fact,  mean  nothing  less  than 
that  the  government  by  the  people  of  England  will  vir- 
tually be  superseded  by  a  government  by  the  grace  of  his 
Holiness  the  Pope. 

Ireland  is  the  thorn  in  England's  body  politic.  This 
thorn  can  only  be  removed  with  the  surgeon's  knife.  The 
policy  of  "blood  and  iron"  is  the  only  proper  prescription 
for  Irish  frenzy  and  swagger.  The  Saxon  and  the  Celt 
will  never  dwell  in  harmony  under  the  same  roof;  the  lat- 
ter will  never  merge  into  the  former's  civilization.  One 
must  rule,  the  other  must  submit  or  disappear.  So  long 
as  Irish  representatives  are  seated  in  Parliament,  so  long 
as  the  policy  of  conciliation  is  applied  to  a  people  bj^  nature 
destined  never  to  be  fitted  into  the  frame  of  any  modern 
or  popular  government,  to  a  people  in  heart  and  soul  loyal 
only  to  a  foreign  Power  and  therefore,  as  also  by  racial 
shortcomings,  non-qualified  for  self-government,  so  long 
will  Ireland  menace  England's  peace  and  prosperity.  The 
Italian  prelates  despise  and  loathe  the  Irish ;  they  despise 
them  on  account  of  their  idiotic  submission  and  supersti- 
tion, the}'  loathe  them  for  their  brutishness,  vulgarity, 
treachery  and  corruption.  But  they  are  useful  and  handy 
tools  of  Popery  wherever  they  secure  a  foothold.  They 
are,  in  riches  and  in  poverty,  liberal  contributors  to  the 
Peter's  pence-fund,  and  when  politically  successful,  always 
ready  to  surrender  the  larger  share  of  their  pickings  and 
stealings  to  the  keepers  of  their  elastic  conscience.  They 
are  Papal  garrisons  and  outposts,  Pretorians  always  ready 
to  fight  and  to  betray  each  other  or  to  murder  liberty. 

The  Irish  agrarian  movement  like  the  insurrection  in. 
Italj'^  and  other  anarchical  outrages  originated  in  the  Vati- 
can.    All  these  social  disorders  had  and  have  a  common 
objective  point — the  furtherance  of  the  Papal  designs  on 
the  liberty,  the  conscience  and  the  riches  of  the  nations 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     63 

thus  threatened  or  assailed.  To  divert  suspicion  and  to 
arouse  liberal  support  Jesuitical  diplomacy  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  Irish  agrarian  movement,  which  had  and  has 
nothing  in  common  with  democracy,  a  Protestant,  Stewart 
Parnell.  When  it  was  thought  politic  to  remove  the  mask, 
Parnell  was  discredited :  the  moral  shortcomings  o^  his  pri- 
vate life,  long  known  in  the  Vatican,  were  published  to  the 
world.  Shortly  thereafter,  at  a  very  opportune  moment, 
Parnell  died.  Gladstone  resigned  and  retired  forever  from 
the  political  stage. 

Judged  by  contemporaneous  history  the  Grand  Old  Man 
is  certainly  not  a  subject  for  heroic  song.  Future  gener- 
ations may  assign  him  a  place  in  the  galaxy  of  great  ora- 
tors or  they  may  couple  his  memory  with  that  of  Guy 
Fawkes. 

SECTION   XV 

Socialism  and  the  Teuton  Race.  The  Socialist  Labor 
Party,  wherever  it  has  spread  as  it  did  in  Germany  and 
of  late  in  England  and  the  United  States,  steadily  with- 
draws the  urban  population  from  the  support  of  all  reac- 
tionary agencies  and  gradually  impresses  the  rural  popu- 
lation. 

Whenever  labor  shall  have  been  fully  aroused  to  the 
necessity  of  political  action,  the  intellectual  and  social  ad- 
vancement of  the  masses  will  not  be  on  international  lines 
as  confidentiallj^  expected  by  the  Semitic  and  Idealist 
leaders  of  Socialism,  but  on  national  or  rather  racial  lines 
and  therefore  in  the  United  States,  Germany  and  England 
in  an  orderly  manner.  There  the  masses  will  assist  in  the 
expulsion  of  the  Papacy  from  Europe  because  presently 
they  will  understand  that  Romanism  always  has  been  and 
always  must  be  the  most  effective  agent  in  the  exploitation 
of  the  masses  and  for  the  maintenance  of  a  social  order  of 
artificial  inequalities  and  this  furthermore,  because  the 
masses  are  always  moved  by  the  traditions  of  their  race. 
Of  course,  before  the  Socialistic  Labor  Party  in  the  United 
States,  Germany  and  England  shall  directly  assail  the 
stronghold  of  superstition  it  will  have  so  constructed  its 
platform  and  readjusted  itself  as  to  be  in  harmony  with 
the  ethics  of  the  Reformation  and  therefore  of  Christianity, 
that  is,  with  the  characteristics  of  the  Teuton  and  Anglo- 
Saxon. 


64  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Every  social  advancement  to  be  lasting  must  have  its 
origin  in  the  tradition  of  ages  and  races  and  must  be  for- 
mulated and  put  in  motion  by  men  born  and  reared  within 
the  pale  of  these  traditions  and  living  within  them.  Social 
orders  cannot  be  manufactured  by  command.  Moses  and 
i\lohammed  merely  systematized  and  codified  that  which 
was  an  intellectual  growth  and  racial  development  of  cen- 
turies. Fjxeu  Christianity  has  been  and  is  to-day  subject 
to  this  law  of  nature.  On  racial  lines  it  moves  to  perfec- 
tion, to  the  ideal  of  the  ideal  man.  Paul  was  its  true  de- 
lineator. Descendants  of  the  Latin,  Semitic  or  Slavic  races 
though  they  were  of  the  highest  intellect  and  gifted  with 
prophetic  vision,  cannot  plan  a  social  order  for  the  Teuton 
or  Anglo-Saxon,  because  in  mind  and  soul  they  are  foreign 
to  each  other. 

Nor  can  this  be  accomplished  by  plans  constructed  on 
scientific  principles,  if  that  were  possible,  in  an  age  of  im- 
perfect, garbled  and  unreliable  statistics  and  of  transition 
in  economic  and  political  formations.  Sociology,  as  yet,  is 
in  its  infancy  and  can  hardly  claim  the  virtues  of  an  ab- 
stract science.  It  is  therefore  a  reasonable  supposition 
that  the  time  has  not  arrived  to  build  a  universal  social 
structure  on  scientific  foundations,  certainly  the  time  is 
gone  when  such  a  structure  could  rest  on  revelation.  In 
the  age  of  machine-g:uns  and  Papal  encyclicals  it  cannot 
rest  on  an  ideal  conception  of  human  nature.  The  disor- 
derly and  chauvinistic  action  of  the  Latin  delegations  to 
the  international  socialistic  Congress  held  in  Switzerland, 
and  the  history  of  the  labor  movement  in  the  United  States 
should  have  convinced  the  leaders  of  the  Socialistic  Labor 
Party  in  Germany  and  England  that  common  descent  and 
religious  or  moral  training  are  the  absolutely  necessary 
conditions  for  the  harmonious  blending  of  economic  ideas 
and  purposes.  Here  the  beneficial  progress  of  the  cause  of 
labor  has  been  continually  interrupted  by  Irish  selfishness, 
bnitishness,  corruption  and  superstition. 

The  first  shot  fired  in  the  next  European  war  will  end 
the  dream  of  an  international  bond  of  labor  and  will  be  the 
signal  for  a  readjustment  of  the  labor  movements  in  Ger- 
many, England,  and  the  United  States  along  racial  lines. 
In  these  countries  the  Socialistic  Labor  Party  will  meet 
with  a  determined  opposition  so  long  as  the  party  leaders 
will  divert  the  masses  from  national  or  racial  pursuits  and 


EXPULSION  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  EUROPE     65 

feed  them  with  Utopian  sports  and  Jacobinical  vagaries  of 
liberty  spiced  with  Gallican  immorality  and  Gallican 
effervescence. 

So  long  as  a  nation,  like  the  German,  is  menaced  by 
powerful  neighbors  seeking  revenge  or  conquest,  by  an 
Asiatic  empire  the  civilization  of  which  is  that  of  the  times 
of  the  discovery  of  America,  so  long  it  cannot  change  the 
social  order  or  reduce  its  armament,  and  must  of  necessity 
as  a  matter  of  self-preservation  oppose  a  party  which  gives 
comfort  and  encouragement  to  the  nation's  enemies  and 
whose  leaders  are  mostly  of  a  foreign  race,  of  cosmopolitan 
pretensions  and  either  idealists  or  smatterers. 

The  last  century  witnessed  the  birth  and  growth  of  na- 
tions and  of  modern  or  true  democracy,  and  the  ascendancy 
of  the  Teutonic  race ;  the  twentieth  century  may  witness 
the  rise  and  development  of  democracies  embracing  the 
nations  of  each  race  in  a  common  bond.  The  Protestant 
Teuton  and  Anglo-Saxon  will  then  evolve  a  social  order 
adapted  to  their  race  and  its  environments. 

SECTION   XVI 

Hearken,  American  Democracy!  In  the  age  of  rapid 
progress,  in  which  distance  and  time  are  controlled  by  the 
human  will,  in  which  every  pulsation  of  the  heart  of  na- 
tions is  felt  throughout  Christendom,  the  fate  of  the  Papacy 
in  Europe  is  of  vast  importance  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  where  Romish  influences  are  already  shaping 
the  policy  of  the  great  political  parties.  Certain  it  is  that 
the  Germans  and  Anglo-Saxons  of  England  will  not  permit 
the  Papacy  to  stay  in  Europe  or  in  any  of  their  de- 
pendencies. 

Where  then  will  it  remove  to? 


PART  II 
THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY 

CHAPTER  I 

SECTION   I 

The  Moral  Causes  of  the  American  Revolution.    An 

Eiiglisli  political  economist  of  161J0,  in  a  tract  included  in 
the  "Harleian  IMiscellany, "  said  of  the  English  colonies 
in  America,  "that  England  need  have  no  jealousy  of  colo- 
nies which  raised  only  sugar  and  tobacco,  and  thus  gave 
her  a  market;  but  sbe  must  keep  anxious  watch  on  those 
colonies  which  disputed  the  traffic  and  competed  with  Eng- 
land in  trade  and  threatened  in  time  a  total  independence 
therefrom."  Undoubtedly  the  writer  correctly  expressed 
and  forecast  the  opinion  and  policy  of  the  ruling  classes 
in  England  in  their  relation  to  the  American  colonies.  It 
was  one  of  indifference  broken  only  by  bursts  of  anger  and 
spasms  of  commercial  selfishness,  the  same  selfishness  which 
has  governed  England's  foreign  and  colonial  policy  down 
to  the  present  time  and  more  than  once,  the  last  time  only 
recently,  politically  isolated  Great  Britain  and  jeopardized 
the  British  empire. 

From  the  date  of  signing  the  Navigation  Act  in  1660, 
prescribing  that  no  merchandise  should  be  imported  into 
the  plantations  but  in  English  vessels  navigated  by  Eng- 
lishmen, to  the  "Writs  of  Assistance"  of  1760  which  gave 
authority  to  search  any  home  for  merchandise  liable  to 
duty,  the  policy  of  England  toward  the  American  colonies 
had  been  dictated  not  by  despotic  desires  but  solely  by  the 
selfishness  of  her  middle  class  which,  on  account  of  its 
secure  social  and  political  position,  had  developed  this 
moral  defect  centuries  before  it  manifested  itself  in  other 
countries  and  was  generally  recognized  as  the  pronounced 
or  rather  historical  character  of  the  class. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  such  a  policy  was  productive  of 
constant  irritation  and  pecuniary  loss  to  entire  classes  of 
the  colonial  population,  yet,  it  could  not  lead  to  a  revo- 

66 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  67 

lution,  to  an  upheaval  so  general  and  spontaneous,  as  that 
which  2ulminated  in  1776  and  which  had  for  its  goal  the 
independence  of  the  colonies.  Revolutions  are  as  much 
the  effect  of  emotions  as  the  result  of  calculations  or  of 
purely  economic  grievances.  England's  trade  policy  did 
not  directly  affect  the  masses  in  the  American  colonies,  or 
the  learned  estate,  and  only  slightly  the  planter  aristocracy. 
The  classes  suffering  loss  and  annoyance,  the  merchants 
and  factors,  and  their  connections,  are  the  least  given  to 
revolutionary  action,  and  their  social  and  political  influ- 
ence on  the  masses  is  the  very  reverse  of  that  which  arouses 
patriotism  or  revolutionary  fervor.  Merchants  make  bad 
revolutionists.  So  far  as  the  ruling  classes  in  the  North 
were  concerned,  the  tendency  to  separation  might  have- 
long  remained  latent  and  inoperative,  even  after  the 
Seven-Years'  War,  when  England  asserted  the  right  of 
taxation  by  Parliament,  interfered  in  the  colonies'  internal 
affairs,  checked  the  growth  of  popular  powers,  and  exe- 
cuted obnoxious  laws  which  had  lain  dormant.  All  the 
measures  and  movements  of  the  English  government  and 
of  the  American  colonists  in  the  see-saw  game  of  securing 
economic  and  political  advantages  were  only  incidents  of 
a  family  quarrel.  The  child  approaching  maturity  ac- 
quires consciousness  and  gradually  claims  a  wider  latitude 
of  action. 

To  explain  the  sudden  disruption  of  the  family  ties,  we 
must  look  to  the  profound  underlying  moral  forces  which 
only  made  the  Declaration  of  Independence  possible.  The 
Stamp  Act,  though  it  was  an  Act  of  momentous  conse- 
quence in  the  history  of  mankind,  was  rather  an  occasion 
than  a  cause.  The  moral  forces  which  moved  the  people 
of  the  American  colonies  to  revolution  had  their  sources  in 
the  ethics  of  the  Reformation  and  of  Anglo-Saxondom. 

"With  the  exception  of  Virginia,  the  people  of  the  colo- 
nies were  nonconformists.  In  the  New  England  colonies 
they  were  Puritans.  The  Dutch  in  New  York  belonged  to 
the  Reformed  Church.  The  German  settlers  in  New  York, 
Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina  were  Lutherans.  The 
South  had  been  settled  by  private  adventurers,  mostly  rep- 
resentatives of  divers  denominations  dissenting  from  the 
Anglican  Church.  In  some  parts  of  the  South  and  North, 
as  for  instance,  in  North  and  South  Carolina  and  in  the 
Jerseys,  the  churches  had  lost  their  hold  on  the  people,  who 


68  CASSOCK  AND  SWOUD 

hardly  preserved  the  form  of  religion.  The  Southern 
planters  had  been  partly  ^allicized,  that  is,  their  attitude 
toward  f'liristianity  grew  out  of  a  superficial  knowledge  of 
the  philosoiiliy  of  the  humanists  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
typified  in  Erasmus,  and  of  that  of  the  skeptics  of  the 
eighteenth  centuiy,  typified  in  Voltaire.  The  dependent 
masses  in  the  South  were  religiously  altogether  indifferent. 
Children  were  growing  up  unbaptized  and  uneducated,  and 
the  dead  were  buried  without  any  Christian  rites.  At  the 
time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  the  common  peo- 
ple had  very  little  more  knowledge  of  a  Savior  than  the 
aboriginal  natives. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  people  in  the  colonies  opposed 
the  Anglican  Church  which  many  thought  no  less  objec- 
tionable than  Komanisra.  In  New  England  the  hostility 
of  the  people  to  the  Church  of  England  was  so  marked  that 
the  Anglican  communicants  were  persecuted  and  deprived 
of  citizenship.  With  the  spread  of  Congregationalism  the 
Separatist  movement  attacking  the  Church  of  England  as 
an  unchristian  body  and  proclaiming  the  doctrine  that 
Church  and  State  should  be  mutually  independent  exerted 
a  powerful  influence.  The  Lutherans  saw  no  difference  in 
the  Anglican  and  Roman  ritual  and  hierarchy  and  had  not 
the  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  English  or  to  the  English  crown. 
They  hated  royalty,  aristocracy,  and  the  hierarchy,  from 
whose  persecutions  they  had  fled  to  America,  martyrs  of 
liberty  and  of  the  Protestant  faith.  The  Dutch  had  not 
forgotten  that  the  English  were  their  conquerors,  and  that 
the  Anglican  Church  and  English  royalty  had  more  than 
once  sided  with  the  enemies  of  the  Netherlands  in  their 
struggle  for  civic  and  religious  liberty.  All  these  people 
hated  the  Anglican  Church  no  less  than  the  Roman  Church 
and  to  them  the  King  of  England,  as  the  head  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  was  but  another  Pope. 

In  1701  "The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts"  was  incorporated  in  England  with 
the  avowed  purpose  of  converting  the  people  of  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  to  Anglicanism  and  thereby  to  strengthen  the 
political  ties  between  the  mother  country  and  the  dependen- 
cies. The  efforts  of  the  missionaries  with  the  masses, 
North  and  South,  were  almost  fruitless,  but  in  the  North 
the  upper  and  moneyed  classes  were  drawn  into  the  Angli- 
can community  which  gradually,  like  the  Roman  Church 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  69 

in  our  times,  exerted  a  power  and  an  influence  out  of  all 
proportion  to  her  numerical  strength.  I'hus  puhlic  opin- 
ion identified  Anglicanism  with  aristocracy  and  plutocracy 
and  suspected  the  missionaries  and  the  converts  of  sinister 
designs  on  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  English  gov- 
ernment of  the  purpose  to  coerce  the  people  into  the  Es- 
tablished Church.  The  attempts  made  by  the  Governors 
of  the  colonies  to  tax  the  people  for  the  support  of  the 
missionaries  and  to  provide  glebe  lauds,  gave  color  to  the 
suspicions  generally  entertained.  These  almost  grew  into 
conviction  when  the  English  government,  after  the  close 
of  the  Seven- Years'  War,  exerted  pressure  to  enforce  the 
provincial  laws  and  to  make  good  the  grants  for  the  sus- 
tenance of  the  Anglican  establishments. 

The  Puritan  and  Lutheran  clergy  gave  expression  in  the 
pulpit  to  what  the  masses  instinctively  felt,  namely :  that 
the  Anglican  Church  did  not  fully  represent  the  ethics  of 
the  Reformation  or  those  of  the  Teuton  race;  that  the 
organization  of  the  Anglican  Church  was  more  by  royal 
command  for  royal  purposes  than  by  popular  assent ;  that 
the  Church  of  England  was,  therefore,  a  royal  institution 
socially  and  politically  hostile  to  democracy.  The  clergy 
and  the  learned  knew  that  with  the  firm  establishment  of 
the  Anglican  Church  in  the  colonies,  popular  rights  were 
threatened,  and  all  advances  towards  democracy  would  be 
arrested.  Religious  motives  were  mainly  the  propelling 
forces  with  the  intelligent  in  their  revolutionary  movement 
against  the  mother-country.  The  masses  responded  to  the 
emotions,  as  they  always  do,  of  their  superiors  in  intellect 
and  in  moral  energy.  This  is  clearly  demonstrated  by 
some  very  significant  events  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can revolution.  The  first  flag  raised  in  New  York  by  the 
"Sons  of  Liberty"  in  1776  was  inscribed  No  Popery.  The 
New  York  Convention,  in  1777,  and  other  States  thereafter, 
established  conditions  of  naturalization  and  laws  which 
virtually  excluded  Catholics  and  Anglicans  from  citizen- 
ship. No  Papacy  and  no  King  was  the  battle  cry  of  the 
Lutherans  on  that  bloody  afternoon  of  the  Oriskany  fight, 
where  with  shattered  knee  Herkimer  sat  smoking  his  pipe 
and  issuing  orders,  while  the  German  colonists  of  the  Mo- 
hawk Valley  defeated  and  blocked  St.  Leger  and  probably 
saved  the  cause  of  the  colonies. 

In  Herkimer  and  Hale,  both  the  very  incarnation  of  the 


70  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ethics  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  heroic  persons  of  the 
War  of  Independence,  were  embodied  the  true  causes  of 
the  American  revolution,  the  moral  forces  ^inderlying  it. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  was  the  signal  for  a  gen- 
eral i)ersecution  and  proscription  by  all  the  dissenters 
throughout  the  country  of  Anglican  clergymen,  mission- 
aries, and  laymen.  They  were  driven,  almost  naked,  from 
hearth  and  home  and  were  forbidden  to  return  under  pen- 
alt}'  of  death.  Nearly  all  the  Anglican  Churches  were 
shut  up.  The  persecutions  had  the  same  motives  which  a 
century  before  caused  the  resistance  of  the  colonies  to  the 
English  government's  attempt  to  take  away  the  charters, 
Increase  ^Mather  advising  them  to  make  the  same  answer  as 
Naboth  made  to  Ahab,  when  the  latter  asked  for  his  vine- 
yard, that  they  would  not  give  up  the  inheritance  of  their 
fathers.  That  opposition  to  the  Anglican  Church  was  then 
a  general  movement  in  all  dissenting  bodies  and  actually 
decided  the  struggle  for  Independence  is  further  shown 
by  the  fact  that  Protestant  Dissenters  composed  the  flower 
of  the  famous  volunteer  army  of  1782  which,  in  Ireland, 
extorted  legislative  independence  from  England  and  vir- 
tually compelled  the  concession  of  independence  to  the 
American  colonies. 

It  is  a  phenomenon  of  history  that  in  times  of  social  de- 
generation and  of  the  demoralization  of  the  ruling  classes 
in  any  country  these  always  either  attempt  the  religious 
coercion  of  the  people  or  favor  a  reactionary  policy  in 
matters  intellectual  and  spiritual.  The  desire  of  the  Eng- 
lish government  to  extend  the  influence  of  the  Anglican 
Church  had  its  source  in  the  demoralization  of  the  English 
aristocracy  and  in  the  retrogression  of  royalty  to  personal 
government.  The  intelligence  and  conscience  of  the  North 
revolted  against  the  one,  the  pride  and  conscience  of  the 
South  against  the  other.  The  Southern  planters,  in  their 
revolutionary  opposition  to  the  mother  country,  were 
moved  more  by  personal  than  by  political  grievances. 
They  were  skeptics  and  paid  little  attention  to  religious 
matters.  They  were  only  prejudiced  against  the  Anglican 
Church  in  so  far  as  her  missionaries  attempted  the  chris- 
tianization  of  the  slaves  or,  as  was  the  case  in  Virginia, 
the  tobacco  tax  paid  towards  the  support  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  became  oppressive  and  annoying.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  the  Southern  planters  would  ever  have 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  71 

rebelled  against  royalty  but  for  the  corruption  of  the  Eng- 
lish government  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a  state  of  affairs 
having  a  demoralizing  effect  on  the  selection  of  the  crown's 
official  representatives  in  the  colonies. 

Walpole's  political  morality  "that  every  man  and 
woman  had  his  or  her  price"  which,  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  guiding  principle 
of  the  English  administration,  bore  evil  fruit  on  American 
soil.  The  English  officials  in  the  colonies  as  a  rule  were 
blacklegs  and  outcasts  whom  even  the  rotten  society  and 
the  corrupt  politicians  of  England  could  no  longer  endure. 
These  demoralized,  vulgar,  and  often  unlettered  sprigs  of 
aristocracy  assumed  in  America  an  overbearing  demeanor 
and  improved  every  opportunity  to  snub  the  planters  of 
the  South  who,  in  their  seclusion  from  the  world's  culture, 
caricatured  the  grand  manner,  the  grace,  and  chivalry  of 
the  aristocracies  of  Europe.  The  English  officials  treated 
the  Southern  planters  much  in  the  same  fashion  as  the 
European  aristocracy  of  to-day  treats  the  American  shoddy 
aristocracy  cringing  before  royalty — with  contempt,  now 
only  less  openly  shown  because  the  shoddyists  have  riches 
and  the  planters  had  debts.  The  descendants  of  the  ad- 
venturers who  settled  the  South  bore  no  love  for  the  com- 
mon people ;  they  were  arrogant,  fed  by  the  labor  of  slaves, 
and  spent  their  time  in  hunting,  racing,  gambling,  and 
general  dissipation,  and  in  their  seclusion  paid  little  at- 
tention to  the  progress  of  the  world  in  ideas.  Of  democ- 
racy, only  a  few  had  the  conviction  of  the  philosopher, 
with  others  it  was  but  a  subject  of  after  dinner  speeches, 
because  it  was  the  latest  fad  from  Paris.  All,  however, 
were  anxious  to  rid  the  country  of  the  English  officials,  to 
supplant  them,  and  to  shine  forth  as  a  true-blue,  dyed-in- 
the-wool  aristocracy.  The  humane  did  not  at  all  enter  into 
their  political  calculations  or  aspirations. 

The  General  commanding  the  Hessians  in  the  War  of 
Independence,  Baron  Riedesel,  wrote  of  the  Yeomen  of 
New  England  "as  being  thick  set,  tolerably  tall,  wearing 
blue  frocks  girt  by  a  strap,  and  having  their  heads  sur- 
mounted by  yellow  wigs,  with  the  honorable  visage  of  a 
magistrate  beneath,  inquisitive,  curious,  and  zealous  to 
madness  for  liberty." 

This  curt  German  soldier  gives  the  best  description  of 
an  element  in  society  that  in  all  ages  and  countries,  since 


72  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  advent  of  Christ,  has  been  the  standard  bearer  of  prog- 
ress and  the  soldiery  in  revolutionary  movements  advanc- 
ing humanity.  AVhenever  this  class  is  dissatisfied  and 
feels  oppressed  within  the  framework  of  society  and  their 
leaders  of  tiie  learned  estate  too  have  cause  for  dissatis- 
faction, then,  at  that  very  moment,  not  only  the  govern- 
ment but  the  order  of  society  is  doomed. 

The  idea  of  equality  before  the  law  which  was  the  off- 
spring of  the  English  commonwealth,  and  which  on  ac- 
count of  the  adverse  influences  of  law,  usage,  and  tradition 
Cromwell  was  unable  lastingly  to  embody  in  English  so- 
ciety, had  at  the  time  of  the  close  of  the  Seven-Years'  War 
become  a  reality  in  New  England.  The  "thick  set,  toler- 
ably tall  Yeomanry  of  New  England,  zealous  to  madness 
for  liberty,"  were  then  the  embodiment  of  the  ideas  of 
Hampden,  Milton  and  Cromwell,  of  the  traditions  of  the 
Teuton  race,  and  of  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation.  The 
men  "with  the  honorable  visage  of  a  magistrate"  were  a 
living  protest  against  the  hereditary  privileged  class  prin- 
ciple. Their  leaders,  the  clergymen,  the  physicians,  the 
lawyers,  and  the  schoolmasters  of  the  villages  had  a  moral 
grievance ;  they  suffered  a  moral  wrong  of  a  nature  which 
in  private  life  and  in  that  of  nations  is  held  to  be  righted 
only  by  an  appeal  to  arms — a  moral  wrong  of  a  nature 
Avhich  made  Hale  regret  that  he  had  only  one  life  to  sacri- 
fice in  the  attempt  to  right  it. 

Students  at  Yale  and  Harvard  were  arranged  according 
to  tlie  social  position  of  their  parents.  According  to  this 
position  the  young  students  were  placed  in  the  dining  hall 
and  the  recitation  room,  and  upon  this  was  also  based  the 
choice  of  college  rooms.  Had  they  always  retained  this 
relative  position  it  would  have  been  less  galling,  but  while 
the  most  distinguished  student  from  the  common  people 
could  not  rise  in  the  list,  the  reprobates  from  the  classes 
could  fall,  and  the  best  scholar  in  the  class  might  find  him- 
self not  merely  in  a  low  position  through  his  parentage, 
but  flanked  on  each  side  by  the  scions  of  more  famed 
families  who  had  been  degraded  by  their  own  folly  or  vice. 
The  social  line  was  strictly  drawn,  and  the  most  severe 
punishment  inflicted  for  crimes  and  dishonorable  acts  com- 
mitted by  the  sons  of  the  nobility  and  quality  was  the 
degradation  of  the  malefactor  to  the  class  of  students  de- 
scended from  the  common  herd.     Thus  the  most  cultured, 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  73 

the  most  conscientious,  and  the  most  intellectual  of  the 
people  were  stamped  a  class  of  pariahs,  of  outcasts  from 
society,  without  honor,  without  conscience,  and  without  any 
rights  of  mind  and  body. 

To  the  mental  tortures  of  the  students  descended  from 
the  common  people  were  added  religious  grievances. 
After  the  Seven-Years'  War  these  colleges  were  thoroughly 
anglicanized.  They  were  placed  under  the  control  of 
Anglican  Presidents,  the  President  of  Yale  at  that  time 
being  a  convert.  To  emancipate  themselves  from  social 
degradation  and  from  intellectual  and  religious  bondage  a 
thousandfold  worse  than  chattel  slavery,  the  Dissenting 
students  had  to  overthrow  the  existing  social  order.  To 
gain  their  goal,  political  independence  from  England  was 
first  of  all  necessary.  The  social  emancipation  of  the 
learned  estate  in  the  colonies  demanded  the  American 
revolution. 

SECTION    II 

The  Agencies  of  Democracy.  When  the  people  of  the 
United  Colonies  had  achieved  independence  and  were 
ready  to  organize  a  national  government,  their  character 
and  institutions,  economic  conditions  and  prospects  dif- 
fered from  those  of  any  other  civilized  people  and,  with 
one  exception,  were  extremely  favorable  to  national  prog- 
ress, and,  in  the  North,  to  that  of  democracy.  They  could 
draw  upon  the  bountiful  and  unparalleled  resources  of  a 
virgin  continent.  No  powerful  neighbors  demanded  the 
maintenance  of  large  armies  exhausting  such  resources  and 
the  productive  forces  of  youth  and  manhood.  They  were 
able  to  utilize  the  experiences  of  European  civilization 
without  the  necessity  of  incurring  its  evils.  Of  the  same 
race  and  speech,  and  of  the  Protestant  faith,  the  future  of 
the  American  people  promised  peace  and  prosperity.  Yet, 
an  ominous  cloud  hovered  on  the  political  horizon,  over- 
shadowing the  moral  life  of  the  people,  obstructing  the 
humane  in  their  aspirations,  and  threatening  with  destruc- 
tion any  structure  the  wisest  of  the  nation  might  build. 
Hovering  over  its  destiny  was — slavery. 

During  the  long  continued  struggle  with  the  aborigines 
and  hostile  neighbors,  with  nature  to  be  subdued,  and  in 
the  contest  and,  finally,  in  the  war  with  the  mother-coun- 
try the  ruling  classes  had  acquired  self-reliance,  religious 


74  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

und  economic  independence,  and  a  strong  desire  for  self- 
government.  The  country's  financial  poverty  and  the 
limits  formerly  set  by  Enc^land's  selfishness  for  the  colonies' 
commerce  and  industry  were  not  propitious  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  gi'eat  riches  in  the  hands  of  the  few.  The  scarcity 
of  its  population  scattered  over  a  vast  territory  without 
metropolitan  cities  left  hardly  a  foothold  to  the  ambitious 
demagogue  and  imperious  warrior,  or  to  the  tumultuous 
rule  of  parties.  There  was  no  fertile  soil  for  a  gradation 
into  castes,  or  their  augmentation,  in  an  organic  body 
which  lacked  a  hereditary  aristocracy  and  an  Established 
Church  of  a  hierarchical  order,  and  was  without  the  es- 
sence of  a  cultured  and  qualified  society  and  those  en- 
vironments of  luxury  and  refinement  which  tempt  powerful 
minds  to  stifle  conscience  and  to  forsake  the  people  in  their 
lowliness  and  uncoutlmess  for  the  allurements  and  voluptu- 
ousness of  the  drawing  room. 

To  appreciate  the  immensity  of  the  American  people's 
social  and  political  progress  from  their  independence  to 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of 
that  at  the  expiration  of  the  eighteenth  century  our  body 
politic  was  not  a  democratic  one,  that  social  and  political 
equalities  were  the  exceptions  and  not  the  rule,  that  in  the 
South  the  masses  were  below  the  moral  and  social  level 
of  those  in  civilized  Europe  and  that  in  the  North  the  same 
conditions  existed  with  only  few  and  local  exceptions,  and 
these  only  slightly  elevated  in  the  humane  scale. 

There  is  no  more  erroneous  belief  than  that  the  lofty 
principles  expressed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
were  the  common  possessions  of  the  people  at  large.  Only 
the  few,  whose  inspirations  were  drawn  from  the  writings 
of  the  French  encyclopadists,  men  like  Grotius,  Puffendorf, 
Locke,  Burlamaqui,  Beccario  and  ]\Iontesquieu,  and  who 
had  thus  absorbed  the  political  as  well  as  the  religious 
principles  of  the  Reformation,  and  those  of  our  student- 
youths  "who  had  suffered  the  soul-consuming  torments 
which  are  the  lot  of  higher  natures  of  the  lowly  born  in 
their  struggle  for  recognition  with  the  privileged  and 
lordly,  thoroughly  comprehended,  advocated  and  contended 
for  the  principles  of  democracy  in  their  ideal  form  and 
placed  upon  the  fundamental  charter  of  our  republic  the 
indelible  stamp  of  the  humane.  With  the  exceptions  al- 
ready mentioned,  the  masses  were  ignorant  and  stolid,  in 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  75 

fact,  they  cared  naught  for  social  and  political  changes  of 
which  they  were  not  and  apparently  would  not  become  the 
beneficiaries.  The  merchants  knew  not  the  duty  of  broad 
and  disinterested  patriotism  and  were  as  impervious  to 
political  ideals  and  as  sordid  as  their  class  is  wont  to  be 
the  world  over.  The  middle  class,  in  its  narrow  provincial 
life,  intellectually  was  even  less  advanced  and  less  cul- 
tured than  that  of  Europe  of  whose  civic  vices :  extreme  self- 
ishness, political  indolence,  and  a  morbid  opposition  to  all 
political  and  social  advances,  it  was  nevertheless  possessed. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  independent  political  life  the 
government  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies  was  not  by  the  peo- 
ple, of  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  but  by  the  privi- 
leged for  the  privileged.  With  the  exception  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts  the  governments  of  States, 
counties  and  municipalities  were  entirely  removed  from 
the  influence  of  the  common  people  and  did  not  even  pre- 
tend to  legislate  or  to  administrate  for  their  benefit;  of 
faith  in  democratic  government  there  was  almost  none. 
The  leaven  of  aristocratic  ideas  had  remained.  Decades 
after  the  establishment  of  the  Union  it  manifested  itself 
in  laws  restricting  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage.  In  nearly 
all  the  States  the  full  enjoyment  of  citizenship  depended 
on  a  property  qualification.  In  many  of  the  Northern 
States  the  patricians  tenaciously  and  with  punitive  hand 
resisted  popular  tendencies.  Of  course,  in  the  Southern 
States  the  status  of  the  common  people  experienced  no 
change  whatever. 

What  then  were  the  agencies  that  developed  the  germs 
of  civic  liberty  which  generated  by  the  Reformation  a  cen- 
tury ago  lay  pinioned  under  the  austereness  of  Puritan 
theocracy,  into  the  great  democracy  which  at  the  close  of 
the  long  era  of  peace,  marked  by  the  War  of  the  Rebellion, 
had  taken  possession  of  the  souls  of  the  people  of  the  North 
and  during  that  terrible  struggle  of  the  Civil  War  filled 
the  lowly  with  the  spirit  of  patriotism  and  moved  them 
willingly  to  sacrifice  themselves  on  the  altar  of  humanity 
to  redeem  millions  from  bondage  and  to  atone  for  the 
political  sins  of  generations? 

These  agencies  were  the  federal  character  of  the  con- 
stitution, the  climatic  restrictions  placed  on  slavery,  the 
influences  of  the  French  revolution,  the  Puritan  common- 
wealth and  its  township  system  of  government,  the  terri- 


76  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

torial  extension  westward  and  the  immigration  made  pos- 
sible thereby,  the  principle  of  rotation  in  office,  and  the 
creation  of  States  by  Congress. 

SECTION  m 

Federalism  and  Slavery.  The  articles  of  confederation 
under  wliich  in  1778  tlie  first  general  government  of  the 
United  States  was  organized  secured  to  the  Stales  auto- 
nomy. Though  certain  powers  were  resers'ed  to  the  general 
government  it  was  not  provided  with  the  means  to  make 
these  powers  effective  in  the  only  possible  way,  i.  e.,  by 
making  them  operative  directly  on  the  people  of  the  States 
instead  of  on  the  States  themselves.  Under  the  Confeder- 
ation the  government  of  the  United  States  was  like  the 
German  "Staatenbund,"  a  federation  of  States,  a  pre- 
carious alliance  which  might  be  dissolved  at  any  moment. 

In  submitting  to  the  change  from  the  loose  confederation 
of  1778  to  the  closer  Union  of  1787,  to  the  nearly  perfect 
federal  system,  the  slave-holding  oligarchy  of  the  South, 
as  the  foremost  representative  of  conservative  or  reaction- 
ary interests,  made  their  first  great  political  mistake. 
With  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  1787  there  was 
brought  into  life  a  political  agency  independent  of  the 
conservative  organism  of  the  States  and  in  touch  with  the 
people  at  large.  As  a  new  organic  body,  eager  to  exert 
its  independence  and  to  increase  its  powers  which  included 
the  power  to  levy  taxes  directly  on  the  people  and  to  con- 
firm the  appointees  to  the  highest  tribunal  interpreting 
the  Constitution,  Congress  of  necessity  became,  so  to  say, 
the  warden  of  the  common  people's  political  interests. 
Under  the  provisions  which  gave  it  the  power  to  organize 
territories  and  to  take  them  as  States  into  the  Union,  it 
was  made  the  arbiter  of  the  social  and  political  destiny  of 
the  millions  who  peopled  the  Western  wilderness  and  ex- 
tended the  Republic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Had  this  process 
of  organization  been  left  to  the  adjoining  States,  the  new 
bodies  politic  would  certainly  have  been  molded  in  the 
interests  of  the  classes  as  against  those  of  the  masses. 

While  the  federal  government  acted  on  the  governments 
of  the  States  it  also  acted  directly  on  every  citizen  of  these 
States.  Thus,  and  through  its  power  of  direct  taxation,  it 
was  made  independent  of  the  social  and  economic  interests 
paramount  in  the  States  that  originally  created  the  gov- 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  77 

eminent.  Hence,  too,  every  agency  of  the  general  govern- 
ment which,  though  not  in  theory,  but  in  practice,  had  its 
basic  idea  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  is,  in 
the  inherent  right  of  self-government,  became  a  promoter 
of  democratic  principles.  The  general  government  in  its 
sovereign  capacity  also  reacted  powerfully  on  the  organism 
of  the  States  and  their  advancement  towards  democracy 
wherever  slavery  did  not  threaten  humanity  with  aggres- 
sion. Furthermore,  the  federal  character  of  our  Consti- 
tution prevented  an  early  clashing  of  the  interests  of 
slavery  and  free  husbandry  which  under  a  centralized  gov- 
ernment or  in  a  confederacy  would  have  occurred  almost 
immediately.  By  a  strange  fatality  Southern  jurists  and 
statesmen  gave  no  heed  to  the  import  and  drift  involved 
in  the  change  from  the  union  of  1778  to  that  of  1787. 
Stubbornly  and  purblindly  adhering  to  the  conception  of  a 
mere  alliance  or  compact  between  sovereign  states,  and,  un- 
mindful of  the  teachings  of  history  that  in  the  life  of  na- 
tions political  exigencies,  economic  changes,  and  social 
environments  affect  the  conception  of  motives,  the  inter- 
pretation of  organic  laws,  and  the  tenure  of  covenants, 
they  paid  little  attention  to  the  storm-clouds  gathering  on 
the  Northern  horizon. 

So  long  as  the  people  of  the  North  followed  exclusively 
commercial  and  agricultural  pursuits  the  antagonism  be- 
tween slavery  and  freedom  could  not  develop  into  an  irre- 
pressible conflict.  The  contentions  of  the  politicians  found 
vent  in  the  wrangles  of  Congress,  and  the  energies  of  the 
peoples  ample  scope,  and  their  efferv^escence  a  safety  valve, 
in  the  wide  expanse  of  territory  to  be  cultivated.  The 
conflict  became  irrepressible  when,  in  the  progress  of  civ- 
ilization, the  Northern  people  were  forced  to  enter  into 
higher  industries,  and  the  two  systems  became  confluent  or 
one  or  the  other  reached  a  preponderance  in  wealth  and 
population.  For  humanity's  sake  it  was  fortunate  that  the 
statesmen  of  the  South  were  checked  and  intimidated  by 
General  Jackson,  truly  the  preserver  of  the  Union  and  the 
savior  of  democracy.  At  the  first  secession  movement  the 
Southern  States  were  superior  in  everything  needed  to  win 
out  in  a  civil  war.  The  North,  as  yet,  had  not  reached  the 
degree  of  organic  cohesion,  nor  had  it  accumulated  the 
resources  necessary  to  carry  on  a  prolonged  and  exhaust- 
ing struggle.    Moreover,  civilized  society  had  not  yet  be- 


78  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

come  imbued  vith  the  humane  ideas  concerning  slavery 
to  such  an  extent,  nor  roused  by  them  to  such  a  pitch  as 
to  give  to  them  the  dignity  and  force  of  a  universal  judg- 
ment. These  ideas  had  not,  as  yet,  impressed  themselves 
upon  the  immigrants  which  then  only  began  to  arrive  in 
numbers  sufficiently  strong  to  affect  our  social  and  eco- 
nomic life.  With  a  weakling  like  Buchanan  in  the  White 
House,  the  South,  then,  would  have  made  good  its  threat 
of  secession  and  established  a  confederacy.  Having  slav- 
ery as  the  substratum  bearing  the  economic  burden  of  the 
superstructure  of  society,  the  masses,  though  without  the 
mockery  of  citizenship,  would  have  been  exempt  from 
the  hardships  of  a  life-long  struggle  for  mere  existence, 
while  the  ruling  class  for  a  time  might  have  attained  the 
highest  civic  and  republican  virtues.  Eager  political 
rivalries  and  ambitious  strife  being  ineradicable  from  an 
oligarchic  system  of  government,  the  history  of  such  a  eon- 
federation  would  have  been  one  of  bitter  political  dissen- 
sions within  and  almost  constant  warfare  without. 

In  the  North,  Puritan  theocracy  free  from  hierarchism 
or  legerdemain,  but  also  without  the  graces  of  a  higher 
culture  and  cosmopolitan  and  humane  inclinations,  would 
have  extended  its  rule  of  Spartan  rigor  to  the  utter  ex- 
clusion of  liberty  of  conscience,  personal  freedom,  scien- 
tific research,  and  the  amenities  of  life.  Of  nearly  equal 
strength,  divergent  in  politics  and  social  customs,  with  a 
mutual  dislike  approaching  race  hatred,  it  would  have 
been  but  a  question  of  time  when  both  sections  should  have 
battled  for  the  mastery.  Under  the  conditions  then  pre- 
vailing, such  a  struggle  W'Ould  have  invited  European  in- 
terference and  closed  with  the  despoiling  of  the  continent. 
The  world  over,  democracy  would  have  suffered  a  set-back 
for  centuries.  A  division  of  the  Union  in  1832  must  have 
stopped  immigration.  The  Pacific  coast  states  would  now 
be  dependencies  of  England,  and  her  treasures  would  have 
enabled  her  aristocracy  to  rule  the  world.  With  the  down- 
fall of  the  great  American  Republic  the  light  of  liberty 
would  have  been  extinguished  and  the  darkness  of  reaction 
settled  down  on  the  civilized  world. 

The  lowly  of  all  nations,  the  millions  who  found  homes 
and  freedom  upon  our  shores,  and  the  people  of  Europe 
who  are  nearing  the  goal  of  liberty  owe  to  Andrew  Jack- 
son a  debt  immense  of  endless  gratitude. 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  79 

Notwithstanding  its  conservative  character  and  its  des- 
perate fight  against  Northern  democracy  in  the  political 
arena,  Southern  society  was  more  republican  than  were  the 
ruling  classes  of  the  Northern  States  who  for  generations 
after  the  establishment  of  the  Union  bewailed  the  loss  of 
prestige  and  grieved  over  the  spread  of  popular  tendencies. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  influence  exercised  by  the 
planter  aristocracy  on  the  national  government  and  its 
foreign  policy  was  as  beneficial  as  it  was  decisive.  After 
the  War  of  Independence  they  cultivated  all  the  graces  and 
many  of  the  virtues  requisite  for  the  enlightened  govern- 
ment of  a  great  nation,  such  as  tolerance  to  customs, 
perspicacity  and  comity  in  international  relations,  a  quick 
sense  of  conventional  honor,  and  an  exalted  pride  in  repub- 
lican citizenship  and  of  patriotism.  It  is  the  impartial 
sense  of  history  that  to  the  exercise  of  these  virtues  by 
Southern  statesmen  the  preservation  of  the  Union  in  its 
infancy  over  against  European  aggressions  is  largely  due. 

Being  free  from  all  that  is  sordid  in  the  industrial  or 
commercial  character,  the  planter  aristocracy  insisted  on 
an  honest  administration,  impressed  on  it  a  certain  nobility 
of  action,  prevented  the  ingress  of  the  jobber's  greed,  and 
suppressed  the  extravagant,  often  cranky  notions  and 
rough  and  ready  theories  and  statesmanship  of  the  mis- 
cellaneous rabble  called  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
The  foreign  policy  was  dignified  and  republican  to  the 
core.  The  peoples  of  Europe  were  deeply  impressed  with 
the  purity  and  economy  in  our  national  administration  and 
the  vigor  and  republicanism  of  its  foreign  policy.  They 
could  not  discern  the  shortcomings  of  our  State  govern- 
ments and  the  political,  social  and  economic  evils  of  slav- 
ery. They  only  perceived  the  ideal,  distance  lent  enchant- 
ment to  the  picture,  and  to  the  oppressed  it  appeared  an 
image  of  the  classical  republics  of  ancient  times. 

It  seems  to  have  been  decreed  by  fate  that  the  very  vir- 
tues and  moral  achievements  of  Southern  statesmanship  in 
its  foreign  policy,  in  their  political  and  economic  results, 
should  exercise  a  reverse  effect  on  the  cause  of  the  South 
in  its  final  struggle  for  separation.  For  instance,  when 
Napoleon  III  conceived  the  coalition  against  Mexico  and 
with  England's  aristocracy  and  moneyed  powers  devised 
schemes  of  intervention  in  our  civil  war,  with  the  ulterior 
purpose  of  destroying  the  great  American  Republic  and 


80  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

\vitli  it  the  strongest  bulwark  of  democracy,  the  masses  of 
]']iirope  espoused  our  cause,  and  public  opinion  enforced 
the  policy  of  neutrality.  After  the  collapse  of  the  wide- 
spread revolutionary  movement  in  Europe  in  1848-49,  the 
proscribed  and  the  liberal  elements  generally  to  whom  our 
country  appeared  to  be  a  haven  of  political  bliss,  by  the 
tens  of  thousands  sought  refuge  upon  our  shores  and  forth- 
with became  the  most  outspoken  opponents  of  slavery  and 
the  most  active  agents  for  its  abolition.  In  fact,  without 
the  aid  of  the  revolutionary  immigrants,  idealists  as  they 
were  who  would  hold  no  parley  with  temporizers  and  en- 
thusiasts, whom  half  concessions  could  not  beguile,  the 
crisis  over  the  fate  of  slavery  might  have  been  postponed 
until  the  Napoleonic  conspiracy  for  the  creation  of  an 
American  empire  had  been  perfected  and  the  North  de- 
moralized under  a  feudal  system  of  capitalism  and  com- 
mercialism. 

It  is  certain  that  in  a  large  centralized  state  the  slavery 
question  would  have  been  the  pressing  question  from  the 
date  of  the  organization  of  the  government  demanding 
immediate  solution.  It  is  equally  certain  that,  had  the 
States  remained  totally  independent  or  under  the  loose 
ties  of  the  act  of  Union  of  1778,  the  economic  interests  of 
the  States  being  divergent  and  of  a  character  demanding 
expansion,  friendly  relations  could  not  have  been  main- 
tained for  any  length  of  time.  In  either  case  the  North 
American  continent,  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  would  have  been  the  theatre  of  wars  destructive 
to  the  independence  of  each  and  all  of  the  States.  In  the 
turbulent  condition  of  the  civilized  world  at  that  time 
England  might  have  reconquered  her  former  dependency. 
The  American  Republic  outlived  the  bitter  internal  dissen- 
sions, fierce  sectional  hatred  and  the  angry  contentions 
over  ever  conflicting  economic  interests  because  of  the  wis- 
dom of  the  framers  of  our  constitution  who  elected  for  our 
organic  law  under  the  then  existing  economic  conditions  a 
nearly  perfect  system  of  federalism. 

SECTION  rv 

Puritanism,  Its  Mission,  Glory  and  Decline,  History 
may  not  exactly  repeat  itself,  but  in  the  successive  stages 
of  humanity's  advance  towards  a  better  condition  we  find 
that  always  a  sustaining  motive  higher  than  gain  has  been 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  81 

the  propelling  or  repelling  force.  Man's  nature  does  not 
change  as  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  desires.  Thus,  the 
quest  of  gold  and  the  desire  for  a  life  of  oriental  luxury- 
being  the  predominant  motives  of  the  aristocratic  adven- 
turers and  vagabond  settlers  of  the  Southern  Colonies,  the 
failure  to  find  the  precious  metal  led  to  the  opening  of 
the  slave  trade. 

When  with  the  introduction  of  slavery  the  political  sins 
of  the  darkest  ages  against  the  eternal  cause  of  justice 
Avere  grafted  upon  the  newly  forming  society  on  the  Amer- 
ican continent,  there  landed  on  the  New  England  shore  a 
small  body  of  refugees  who  were  possessed  of  the  higher 
motive  which  alone  enables  man  to  mark  out  the  future 
of  a  nation  and  to  organize  society  on  the  basis  of  a  spiritual 
life  which  can  adapt  itself  to  the  necessities  of  coming  gen- 
erations and  evolve  the  humane  out  of  their  material 
progress  and  their  political  aspirations.  The  Pilgrims 
brought  to  America  the  spiritual  achievements  of  the 
Reformation,  the  moral  and  intellectual  ascendency  of  the 
Teutonic  race,  the  township  system  transmitted  through 
centuries  from  the  tribal  organization  of  the  Saxons,  and 
the  most  effective  democratizing  agent  in  modern  society; 
the  common  schools,  compulsory  education. 

They  came  here  not  to  organize  an  ideal  community  nor 
a  model  State  in  which  liberty  of  conscience  and  a  democ- 
racy as  to  the  things  temporal  should  rule,  but  they  came 
as  adherents  of  Calvinism,  a  religious  system  void  of 
sympathetic  kindness  and  pity  and  the  least  absorbent  of 
the  humane  precepts  of  the  Reformation;  they  came  to 
found  a  religious  community  on  their  own  model,  which 
of  course  had  to  show  the  good  and  bad  points  in  the 
character  of  the  designers  individually  and  collectively,  of 
their  caste  and  creed,  and  in  its  qualifications  could  not 
advance  beyond  the  endowments  of  the  times. 

In  a  community  founded  on  religious  faith  the  govern- 
ment must  be  of  a  theocratic  character.  Under  the  teach- 
ings of  Calvinism,  Puritan  theocracy  could  not  develop  a 
hierarchical  order  or  caste;  it  maintained  social  and  polit- 
ical equality,  and  its  powers  were  not  derived  solely  from 
vested  authority  but  also  from  moral  and  intellectual 
ascendency.  The  Puritan  clergy  were  not  only  the 
spiritual  guides  of  their  flock,  but  were  part  and  parcel 
of  its  very  being,  an  essential  element  in  the  body  politic ; 


82  CASSOCK  AND  S\\-ORD 

thoy  shared  alike  in  its  fortunes  and  in  its  woes;  they  did 
not  worship  idols  of  gold ;  they  were  not  the  hired  mouth- 
piece of  the  mighty  and  the  rich,  they  had  the  moral  cour- 
age of  their  convictions  and  were  ready  to  take  arms  in  the 
defense  of  their  people's  home,  they  believed  in  Christianity 
as  the  sole  and  complete  revelation  of  Divine  truth  and  in 
the  Presbyterian  creed  as  the  true  interpretation  thereof. 
Of  course,  they  knew  not  the  wavering  skepticism  of  modem 
times  because  they  knew  nothing  of  any  scientific  princi- 
ples to  be  applied  as  a  test  to  the  Bible  which  was  the  sole 
guide  to  their  spiritual  and  temporal  government.  They 
were  intolerant  because  they  were  Calvinists  and  children 
of  their  time  and,  like  the  chosen  people  of  old,  were  con- 
vinced of  their  selection.  They  persecuted  other  sects  be- 
cause they  perceived  in  their  teachings  an  incentive  to  a 
w'illful  disobedience  of  the  commands  of  God  and  in  their 
every  day  life  a  political  danger  threatening  the  welfare 
and  the  established  order  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
motives,  for  instance,  which  incited  the  prosecution  of  the 
Quakers  were  about  the  same  which,  to-day,  incite  society 
to  prosecute  anarchists.  They  gave  the  prosecuted  a  just 
and  impartial  trial  according  to  the  understanding  and 
usages  of  the  times.  They  did  not,  like  the  Southern 
chivalry  of  to-day,  wantonly,  kill  the  innocent  mothers 
and  sisters  of  persons  of  another  race  or  faith. 

The  religious  tenets  and  the  theocratic  form  of  govern- 
ment were  not  the  only  causes  that  the  society,  of  which 
the  Puritan  clergy  w^ere  the  masters,  in  the  course  of  time, 
became  frigid  and  in  a  manner  detached  from  the  general 
advance  in  the  ethics  of  the  Christian  world. 

For  centuries  isolated  from  the  civilized  community  at 
large  and  its  progress,  immured  in  the  loneliness  of  their 
homes,  under  the  rigor  of  an  inhospitable  climate,  and 
within  narrow  confines  surrounded  by  hostile  nationalities 
and  creeds  and  savages,  the  Puritans  could  not  avoid  de- 
veloping a  tribal  character.  The  increasing  struggle  for 
existence  with  the  barrenness  of  the  soil  and  with  their 
neighbors  and  a  harsh  and  exacting  church  discipline 
exalted  the  character  of  the  people  and  promoted  self- 
reliance,  abstinence,  and  chastity  of  the  mind  and  body, 
but  developed  also  a  morbidity  of  consciousness  and  an 
intolerance  which  denied  the  rights  of  fellow-men,  excluded 
charitableness,    and    refused    to    take    cognizance    of    the 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  83 

world's  cultural  advances  and  virtues.  Retrograding  into 
fanaticism  and  a  moral  rigor  morbis  Puritan  society  lost 
the  atility  to  assimilate  the  humane. 

Such  was  the  tribal  character  of  the  Puritans  when  they 
entered  into  their  mission  of  exploiting  the  wilderness  of 
the  West  and  Northwest  and  of  founding  therein  strong- 
holds of  democracy  from  which  great  armies  sallied  forth 
to  deliver  the  republic  from  the  thraldom  of  slavery  and  to 
start  and  to  push  forward  one  of  the  great  and  sudden 
advancements  of  the  human  race. 

The  township-system  of  government  which  the  Pilgrim 
fathers  had  brought  from  their  English  homes  and  on 
which,  aided  by  the  experience  gained  during  their  short 
sojourn  in  the  Netherlands,  they  built  up  their  political 
structures,  had  qualified  the  New  England  people  for  the 
establishment  of  purely  democratic  states.  In  the  theo- 
cratic communities  of  Massachusetts  we  must  recognize 
the  source  from  which  the  flow  of  democratic  ideas  pervaded 
all  the  political  institutions  of  the  United  States.  The 
township-system  enforced  the  presence  of  all  qualified  citi- 
zens at  the  primary  assemblies  to  take  a  direct  part  in  legis- 
lation and  thus  it  tended  to  give  to  the  citizens,  individually 
and  collectively,  the  political  education  and  the  moral  worth 
which  prevents  the  vices  of  ignorance  and  corruption. 
"VMiile  it  makes  it  the  duty  and  right  of  every  citizen  to 
exercise  direct  judgment  on  public  affairs,  it  develops  in 
the  individual  consciousness  of  power  and  therefore  inde- 
pendence and  thereby  prevents  class  rule  and  the  despotism 
of  parties.  Wherever  the  Puritans  founded  common- 
wealths, followed  agricultural  pursuits  and  were  not 
brought  into  direct  and  sudden  contact  with  the  culture  of 
the  world  at  large,  or  into  competition  with  it,  they  pre- 
served nearly  all  the  traits  of  tribal  character  and  fulfilled 
the  mission  by  nature  entrusted  to  them. 

A  political  and  social  order  resting  on  qualifications 
peculiar  to  its  constituency  and  essentially  the  creation  of 
creed  and  environments  can  only  last  in  the  self-sufficiency 
of  economic  and  social  exclusion  and  under  the  spiritual 
and  material  conditions  under  which  it  came  into  existence. 
Sparta  fell  and  her  virtues  vanished  when  her  ruthless  war- 
riors attempted  to  graft  her  tribal  character  and  spiritual 
nature  upon  the  highly  cultured  commonwealths  of  their 
race.     When,  therefore,  Puritanism  moved  from  its  moral 


84  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

base,  overstepped  its  natural  confines,  and  came  into  con- 
tact and  competition  with  the  world's  culture  at  a  period 
of  its  most  rapid  progress,  intellectually  and  materially,  the 
tribal  traits  deteriorated,  frugality  turned  into  greed,  chas- 
tity of  mind  and  abstinence  into  vulgarism,  industry  into 
craftiness,  and  faith  into  hypocrisy.  Breaking  away  from 
the  sternness  of  Calvinism  the  Puritan  communities  began 
drifting  to  the  opposite  extreme.  Here  again  history  seems 
to  repeat  itself.  Apparently  Puritanism  is  destined  by 
fate  to  pass  through  the  same  stages  of  moral  decay  as  did 
ancient  Roman  society  from  the  day  of  its  first  territorial 
aggrandizement,  when  by  its  aspiration  to  the  world's 
domain  it  was  brought  into  contact  with  oriental  civiliza- 
tion. With  Puritanism  this  process  of  decay  commenced 
with  the  era  of  Independence  and  the  emigration  westward. 
It  was  quickened  and  laid  bare  by  the  demoralizing  agencies 
of  the  Civil  War  and  rendered  virulent  by  the  dissolving 
forces  of  industrialism. 

These  and  the  clashing  of  other  economic  interests  and 
the  conflux  in  Western  territories  of  two  social  orders,  sur- 
vivals of  past  ages,  were  the  latent  and  direct  causes  that 
brought  about  the  final  struggle  over  slavery.  The  oppo- 
sition to  it  in  the  first  place  did  not  arise  from  moral  or 
religious  scruples.  The  abolitionists  of  the  New  England 
States  did  not  draw  their  inspiration  from  the  ethics  of 
their  people.  They  were  moved  by  the  powerful  current 
of  humane  ideas  then  flowing  westward  from  the  shores  of 
Europe.  The  solution  of  the  slavery  question  in  the  United 
States  was  accelerated  by  the  recklessness  and  impolitic 
bearing  of  Southern  society,  by  the  revolutionary  character 
of  the  German  immigration,  and  enforced  by  the  mandate 
of  an  enlightened  age  which  Puritanism  outraged  with 
Knownothingism,  a  movement  conceived  in  the  mosaic 
spirit  that  commanded  the  chosen  people  to  slay  the 
strangers.  As  late  as  1838  America's  Pestalozzi,  Rufus 
Alcott,  was  forced  to  close  his  school  in  Boston,  the  seat  of 
New  England's  philosophism  and  of  its  aesthetic  sperm-oil 
aristocracy,  because  he  extended  the  benefits  of  a  higher 
education  to  an  intelligent  negro  youth. 

The  Knownothing  movement  in  its  conception  and  polit- 
ical direction  clearly  proved  that  Puritanism  was  made 
conscious  of  its  impotency  to  stem  the  influx  of  universal 
culture  and  that,  in  the  two  centuries  of  its  seclusion,  it  had 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  85 

almost  lost  the  faculty  of  apprehending  the  political  ethics 
of  the  Reformation.  As  part  and  parcel  of  the  teutonic 
race  for  whose  lasting  elevation  the  Pilgrim  fathers  had 
suffered  expatriation,  had  faced  the  unknown  dangers  of 
the  Avilderness,  and  had  enacted  one  of  the  heroic  scenes 
of  history,  their  descendants  should  eagerly  have  seized  the 
opportunity  to  execute  that  trust,  theirs  by  political  inherit- 
ance, of  gathering  together  all  the  elements  of  that  race 
drifting  to  our  shores  and  of  leading  them  in  the  now  fast 
approaching  unavoidable,  and  then  already  clearly  discern- 
ible, conflict  for  the  maintenance  of  religious  and  civic 
liberty. 

Before  we  shall  be  fully  endowed  with  the  character  of  a 
nation  Puritanism  will  have  exhausted  its  vitality.  Clad 
in  mediaeval  armor  and  advancing  in  quixotic  battle  array, 
it  will  waste  its  power  abortively  in  contending  for  the 
survival  of  prejudices  and  antiquated  customs  and  for 
mosaic  traditions  and  superstitions  against  which  the  spirit 
of  the  times  revolts.  It  will  vainly  endeavor  to  retain  the 
leadership  of  a  society  on  which  it  impressed  its  stamp, 
but  which  is  slipping  from  its  grasp  into  the  grooves  of 
general  culture  and  has  outgrown  that  spirit  which  views 
the  world  from  the  belfry  of  the  village  spire. 

When  in  1861  the  people  of  the  United  States  entered 
into  the  transformation  of  their  social  organism  and  into 
the  process  of  national  assimilation  and  crystallization, 
Puritanism  had  already  finished  the  task  of  spiritual  and 
material  toil  by  nature  allotted  to  it.  It  had  successfully 
undertaken  the  cultivation  of  a  continent ;  it  had  defended 
its  civilization  against  the  aggressions  of  the  latin  race; 
it  had  its  system  of  government  engrafted  on  the  political 
and  social  organism  of  the  new  States,  and  its  crude  moral 
code  had  fulfilled  a  truly  humanizing  mission  restraining 
the  passions  and  anarchistic  desires  of  a  pioneer  society 
removed  from  the  restraints  of  civilization  and  isolated  in 
the  vastness  of  the  wilderness.  The  causes  of  the  failure 
of  Puritanism  to  become  the  binding  element  in  our  nation- 
ality and  to  shape  its  destiny  are  not  to  be  sought  for  in 
the  shortcomings  of  the  individual  or  of  the  family  but  in 
tlie  long  period  of  seclusion,  in  climatic  conditions,  and  in 
the  disconsolate  darkness  of  religious  austerity  under  which 
the  tree  of  life  withered  and  ceased  to  bud  and  blossom. 


86  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

SECTION   V 

Thomas   Jefferson   and   the   French   Revolution.     The 

spai'e  of  tinu'  in  Aiiuricaii  history  I'l-oin  the  close  of  the 
War  of  liidepeudeuce  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution 
of  the  L'liited  States  may  be  called  the  era  of  vacillation 
and  of  doubt  as  to  the  principles  on  which  our  national 
government  should  rest  and  to  the  form  in  which  it  should 
be  east. 

The  fact  has  been  noted  that,  when  the  American  people 
had  achieved  independence,  our  body  politic  was  not  a 
deinocratie  one,  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Puritan  com- 
monwealth, politics  in  the  States  were  the  exclusive  domain 
of  the  classes.  The  common  people  had  no  voice  in  the 
organization  of  the  Central  Government.  In  fact,  in  the 
childhood  of  American  independence  it  often  appeared 
doubtful  whether  the  American  people  should  ever  live 
under  a  republican  form  of  government;  the  possibility  of 
its  organization  on  a  democratic  basis  would  have  been 
thought  chimerical.  Undeniable  it  is  that  many  of  the 
politicians  and  leading  minds  who  had  been  foremost  in 
the  movement  against  the  mother-country,  became  alarmed 
at  the  prospect  of  republican  rule  and  correspondingly 
reactionary  the  more  they  conceived  the  probability  of  its 
drift  in  the  direction  of  the  political  emancipation  of  the 
masses.  The  preference  for  conservative  and  even  hered- 
itary government  was  not  alone  openly  expressed  by  former 
royalists  but  by  prominent  party  leaders  and  men  of  revolu- 
tionary renown  whom  posterity  studiously  has  been  led  to 
worship  as  the  very  incarnation  of  democratic  principles. 
Amongst  the  privileged  classes  a  powerful  reactionary  cur- 
rent had  set  in  and  it  appeared  that  the  sacrifices  of  the 
common  people  during  the  long  and  bloody  struggle  were 
not  to  insure  the  amelioration  of  their  economic,  social,  and 
political  conditions,  but  to  augment  the  powers  and  privi- 
leges of  the  patricians  and  that,  so  far  as  the  plebeians  were 
concerned,  independence  would  only  amount  to  a  change 
of  masters.  The  reactionary  movement  appeared  the  more 
threatening  to  the  future  of  the  American  people  and  the 
more  likely  to  succeed  since  the  masses  were,  as  yet,  not  able 
to  comprehend  the  humane  teachings  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and,  therefore,  were  not  prepared  to  de- 
mand their  inherited  rights. 

Fortunately  for  the  progress  of  democracy  in  America, 


THE  GREAT  AIHERICAN  DEMOCRACY  87 

at  the  most  opportune  moment,  the  French  revolution  elec- 
trified the  disinherited  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
"Liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  for  all  mankind" — the 
rallying  cry  of  the  sans-culottes  found  an  echo  in  the  hearts 
of  the  American  people.  Democratic  societies  were  organ- 
ized after  the  model  of  the  Jacobin  clubs.  Their  political 
activity  stirred  up  the  masses  and  moved  the  middle  class 
to  demand  a  broader  gauge  of  political  liberties. 

Though  the  movement  was  short  lived,  having  no  affinity 
with  the  Anglo-Saxon  character,  yet,  it  had  imbued  the 
people  with  a  due  apprehension  of  the  basis  upon  which  the 
government  of  a  republic  must  rest.  It  gave  strength  and 
volume  to  the  party  of  which  Jefferson  was  the  moving 
spirit.  The  vibrations  of  the  French  revolution  affected 
American  society  in  such  a  manner  and  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  genius  of  Jefferson  could  engraft  onto  American 
life  the  thoughts  and  ideals  of  the  Greek  scholars  of  his 
times.  He  forged  the  weapons  with  which  subsequent  gen- 
erations laid  low  the  dragons  of  absolutism  and  slavery,  his 
intuitions  and  his  teachings  enabled  our  people  to  discern 
the  truth  when  brought  home  to  them,  that  the  institution 
of  slavery  was  utterly  and  absurdly  anomalous  in  a  demo- 
cratic community,  and  that  the  sale  of  human  beings  in 
open  market  was  not  reconcilable  with  the  state  of  civilized 
society  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

SECTION   VI 

Migration  and  Immigration.  The  most  important  factor 
in  the  unparalleled  material  development  of  the  United 
States  within  a  century  of  their  independence  has  been  the 
migration  from  the  Eastern  and  Middle  states  westward 
and  that  from  Europe  to  our  shores.  The  Puritans  took 
with  them  their  strong  individuality  and  transplanted  their 
system  of  self-government  and  love  of  law  and  order  into 
the  organism  of  the  so-called  free  States. 

Another  body  of  sturdy  yeomen  migrated  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  North  Carolina  westward.  They  also  cherished 
religious  and  civic  liberty  and  even  more  steadfastly  were 
moved  by  the  inspirations  of  the  Reformation,  When  yet 
a  dependency  of  the  British  Crown  the  colonies  had  at- 
tracted a  numerous  body  of  German  Protestants  who,  like 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  had  suffered  expatriation  rather  than 
lose  their  rights  of  mind  and  soul.     These  refugees  settled 


88  CASSOCK  AND  S\V(JHD 

in  Peunsylvauia  and  North  Carolina.  More  than  a  year 
before  Thomas  Jellerson  drafted  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence their  descendants  adopted,  in  1775,  at  a  Conven- 
tion held  at  Charlotte,  N.  C,  the  so-called  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  demanded  the  abolition 
of  slavery.  When  the  minatory  movement  westward  com- 
menced the  Pennsylvania  Dutch  drifted  mostly  into  the 
regions  afterwards  known  as  the  Border  States.  There 
they  and  the  Protestant  Scot-Irish,  descendants  of  the 
Lowland  Scotch  of  the  purest  Saxon  blood,  continued  in 
their  opposition  to  slavery  and  upset  the  treacherous  project 
of  James  Williamson,  a  second  Benedict  Arnold,  who  had 
been  a  General  in  the  Revolutionary  War  and  in  1786  had 
sold  himself  to  the  Spaniards  to  separate  the  West  from  the 
Union,  which  at  the  time  of  the  organization  of  our  Na- 
tional Government  was  the  chief  object  of  Spanish  diplo- 
macy on  the  American  continent. 

Until  the  second  quarter  of  the  last  century  the  immi- 
gration from  Europe  did  not  reach  large  proportions. 
Then  the  stream  began  to  flow  in  ever  increasing  volume. 
At  first  its  main  sources  were  Ireland  and  Germany.  The 
immigration  from  these  countries  exerted,  though  in  en- 
tirely different  directions,  a  decisive  and  lasting  influence 
on  the  moral,  political,  and  economic  development  of  the 
United  States.  While  the  Catholic-Celtic  Irish  immigra- 
tion which,  until  1850,  was  the  most  numerous,  brought  to 
this  country  willing  hands  to  supply  the  manual  labor 
necessary  to  advance  us  in  prosperity,  it  also  brought  with 
it  the  superstitions  of  ignorance  and  political  corruption. 
It  brought  with  it  an  often  latent  virus  which  has  withered 
the  organism  of  many  States.  It  planted  deeply  in  our 
soil  an  acclimated  Romanism,  until  then  an  exotic  plant. 

To  the  middle  of  the  last  century  the  German  immigra- 
tion was  neither  of  such  numbers  nor  of  such  a  character 
as  to  exert  any  perceptible  influence  on  the  organism  of 
society.  For  reasons  already  mentionel  the  character  of 
the  German  immigration  suddenly  changed  in  1850  and 
it  also  reached  large  proportions.  For  two  generations 
the  German  people  had  subordinated  the  material  to  the 
spiritual,  they  had,  as  yet,  not  entered  into  industrialism 
as  a  national  pursuit ;  they  had  not  idolized  the  golden  calf 
and  worshiped  Baal ;  they  were  frugal  in  habits,  devoted  to 
law  and  order,  and  deeply  imbued  with  the  responsibilities 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  89 

of  the  family  and  citizenship.  Thus  the  German  immigra- 
tion possessed  many  of  the  qualities  and  characteristics  of 
the  Puritans,  The  peculiarities  and  specialties  of  each 
appeared  to  supply  a  deficiency  in  the  other,  the  one  lack- 
ing the  matter-of-fact  view  of  men  and  things,  the  other 
the  perception  of  their  humane  relations.  The  German 
immigration  of  revolutionary  origin  and  the  Puritans  were 
homogeneous.  Neglectful  of  this  truth  we  fell  into  political 
and  social  errors.  The  German  immigrants  of  1848-^9 
made  possible  the  organization  of  the  Republican  party; 
they  were  men  of  science  who  infused  new  elements  into 
our  culture;  they  were  artisans  and  farmers  who  applied 
their  skill  and  resources  to  the  development  of  higher 
industry  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  As  martyrs  of 
liberty  they  were  missionaries  of  democracy. 

SECTION  VII 

Andrew  Jackson  and  the  Spoils  System.  As  the  expo- 
nent of  the  principle  "to  the  victor  belongs  the  spoils" 
Andrew  Jackson  rendered  good  service  to  the  American 
people  and  to  democracy.  Rotation  in  office  has  been  one 
of  the  most  efficient  agencies  in  the  political  advancement 
of  the  common  people.  It  has  had  an  important  bearing 
on  the  development  of  parties,  the  diffusion  of  political 
knowledge,  and  the  growth  of  popular  tendencies  in  as  much 
as  it  made  all  the  officials  dependents  of  public  opinion  and 
of  the  rule  of  majorities.  It  enlisted  in  the  people's  service 
the  intellectual  and  turbulent  and  gave  employment  to 
their  energies.  It  prevented  the  formation  of  a  bureau- 
cracy which  under  the  then  existing,  now  however  changing 
conditions  of  American  life,  could  have  been  but  a  mere 
farce  of  the  bureaucracies  of  Europe.  At  the  time  Ameri- 
can society  was  lacking  all  the  requirements  and  qualities 
for  such  an  institution,  for  instance,  the  educational  facil- 
ities. 

The  moral  and  social  influences  under  which  the  people 
in  the  North  were  laboring  were  favorable  to  earnestness  of 
purpose,  integrity,  religious  fervor  and  honor,  in  the  sense 
of  respect  for  the  esteem  and  censure  of  the  world,  but  not 
such  as  to  develop  honor  in  the  abstract  from  which  alone 
flows  the  esprit  de  corps  absolutely  necessary  for  an  honest, 
able  and  loyal  administration  by  a  bureaucracy.  Within 
our  political  framework  and  with  the  unlimited  resources 


90  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

of  a  prosperous  people  to  draw  ui>on,  such  a  fixed  body  of 
officials  would  have  attracted  tiie  worst  eleineuts  in  society, 
it  would  have  cloyed  with  corruption,  harbored  reactionary 
designs  and  continually  menaced  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  people.  These  very  conditions  confront  us  now  as  a 
result  of  an  antiquated  system  of  administration  in  a 
transitional  stage  of  our  national  development. 

SECTION  vin 

The  Glory  of  the  American  Democracy.  The  founda- 
tion rock  of  political  liberty  is  the  economic  independence 
of  the  individual.  Under  a  constitutional  or  republican 
form  of  government  popular  extension  of  citizenship  with- 
out the  extension  of  economic  opportunities  is  a  mockery 
and  under  ordinary  circumstances  either  attaches  the 
enfranchised  to  the  interests  of  the  privileged  or  promotes 
demagogism  and  the  spread  of  social  and  political  heresies 
and  of  corruption.  Therefore,  absolute  economic  inde- 
pendence of  the  masses  is  essential  to  the  rule  of  democracy, 
or,  at  least,  the  presence  of  such  economic  opportunities 
•which  leaves  it  within  the  reach  of  every  citizen  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  his  labor.  Down  to  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the 
American  people  enjoyed  these  opportunities  in  a  manner 
unparalleled  in  modern  history  because  they  populated  the 
richest  land  on  earth ;  from  its  bounteous  sources  American 
democracy  drew  its  nourishment. 

Always  mindful  of  the  extraordinary  blessings  which  our 
people  enjoyed  and  of  their  having  been  in  a  great  measure 
denied  to  other  civilized  nations  in  their  struggles  for  inde- 
pendence or  for  liberty  we  should  not  have  been  led  into 
an  exaggeration  of  our  worth  and  into  the  fatal  error  that 
we  are  superior  to  all  other  peoples  of  the  earth  and  superior 
too  to  all  the  elementary  laws  of  economic  and  social  devel- 
opment. We  should  have  always  had  in  mind  that  the 
study  of  our  history,  free  from  all  suppression,  evasion  and 
sophistry,  teaches  that  all  our  social  and  political  institu- 
tions are  not  the  fruition  of  American  thought  but  of  that 
of  the  philosophers  and  statesmen  of  Ancient  Greece,  of  the 
Reformation,  and  of  the  many  periods  of  revolutionary 
struggle  in  Europe  for  civic  and  religious  liberty.  A 
democracy  shaping  its  future,  must  learn  its  own  history 
truly  and  correctly ;  it  must  view  it  as  a  whole.  Free 
peoples,  to  preserve  their  liberties  and  to  advance  in  the 


THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  91 

humane,  must  apply  to  their  past  and  present,  sternly  and 
scrupulously,  the  rules  of  criticism  with  which  the  historian 
in  another  age  will  measure  their  shortcomings  and  their 
virtues.  Otherwise  the  people  will  fall  into  economic 
errors,  into  political  snares,  and  nurse  social  delusions. 
Unfortunately  for  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  and  possibly 
for  the  cause  of  democracy  the  world  over,  we  have  of  late 
been  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  it  is  to  nature's  bounty  more 
than  to  any  human  agency  that  we  owe  the  growth  of 
American  democracy.  In  the  centuries  of  our  seclusion 
from  the  world's  culture  we  developed  boundless  self- 
confidence,  contempt  for  others,  and  morbid  pride,  born  of 
ignorance  and  want  of  knowledge  of  others,  all  of  which  we 
styled  patriotism,  though  in  truth,  it  is  only  provincialism. 
From  it  spring  the  artificial  evils,  which,  in  our  days,  have 
caused  the  decline  of  the  American  democracy  and  the 
chaotic  conditions  in  our  national  existence.  The  awaken- 
ing has  been  rude  and,  therefore,  in  the  nature  of  a  shock. 

Yet,  from  the  day  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
when  a  great  American  democracy  was  the  vision  of  the  few, 
until  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  when  their  vision  had 
materialized  in  the  splendid  political  organization  which 
embraced  the  millions  of  the  North,  the  American  people 
had  in  the  main  obeyed  the  precepts  of  the  Reformation, 
and  politically  had  carried  it  to  a  higher  point. 

Still  the  hardest  and  most  imperative  duty  that  the 
Northern  democracy  owed  to  itself,  to  posterity  and  man- 
kind, was  yet  to  be  done.  On  the  political  horizon  hovered 
as  before  that  ominous  cloud,  slavery.  The  descendants  of 
the  "men  with  the  honorable  visage  of  a  magistrate,"  the 
successors  of  Herkimer  and  Hale  were  ready  to  fulfill  the 
task  which  from  the  days  of  Lexington  and  Oriskany  were 
their  trust  and  inheritance.  When  Southern  imperiousness 
and  purblindness  provoked  the  bloody  struggle  in  Kansas 
over  slavery,  challenging  the  democracy  of  the  North  and 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  when  the  cowardly  blow  struck  in  the 
Senate  chamber  laid  low  the  organizer  of  the  political  resist- 
ance to  slavery,  Sumner,  and  challenged  the  learned  and 
the  cultured,  and  when  John  Brown 's  fierce,  avenging  spirit 
aroused  the  Yeomanry  of  the  North,  slavery  was  doomed. 


PART  III 
THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE 

CHAPTER  I 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion  and  Its  Effect  on 
American  Society 

section  i 

The  Dismal  Shadow  of  Democracy.  When  an  empire  is 
founded  witli  separate  parts  and  diverse  elements,  a  gradual 
work  of  assimilation  must  precede  the  final  joining  together 
and  the  work  of  fusion.  It  is  in  this  that  we  find  the  secret 
of  German  unification  and  of  the  apparently  sudden 
foundation  of  the  German  empire.  During  half  a  century 
all  the  intellectual  and  moral  forces  of  the  German  people 
were  concentrated  in  the  work  of  social  assimilation,  while 
the  economics  were  apparently  entirely  neglected.  There 
the  learned  estate  directed  the  work;  it  threw  into  a  crucible 
of  intellectual  and  moral  transformation  all  the  provinces 
and  all  the  elements  that  constitute  the  German  unity  of 
the  present  day.  When  the  fusion  was  complete,  the 
nation's  economic  expansion  was  attempted  but  again  under 
the  direction  of  the  intellectual  forces  of  the  nation  and, 
consequently,  in  an  orderly  and  well  regulated  manner  care- 
fully guarding,  so  far  as  possible  in  the  era  of  Capitalism, 
against  the  evils  thereof. 

Unfortunately,  our  period  of  transformation  commenced 
with  a  civil  war  of  unparalleled  extent,  and,  at  a  time,  when 
the  intellectual  and  moral  forces  of  the  people  had  made 
only  a  slight  advance  beyond  the  closely  drawn  lines  of 
theocracy  and  provincialism,  aye,  were  only  beginning  to 
burst  these  confines.  Consequently,  our  process  of  unifica- 
tion was  the  reverse  of  that  of  Germany.  With  us  the  work 
of  assimilation  was  of  an  exclusively  material  character. 
Therefore,  the  work  of  political  fusion  has  not  produced 
a  corresponding  fusion  of  crystallization  in  ethics  and  our 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE  93 

amalgam  is  lacking'  in  intellectuality  and  morality.  Our 
process  of  nationalization  took  place  under  the  direction  of 
the  middle  class  and  not  of  the  learned  estate  and,  conse- 
quently, had  to  show  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  shortcom- 
ings with  which  the  class  is  beset,  and  the  patchwork  charac- 
ter in  which  its  selfishness  delights.  We  have  achieved  na- 
tional unity  and  greatness  only  at  the  expense  of  our  moral 
health  and  through  the  reckless  expenditure  and  waste  of 
our  inheritance,  of  the  resources  of  the  country.  Like  an 
overgrown  youth  we  have  the  seeds  of  dissolution  in  our  sys- 
tem. We  have  entered  into  fellowship  with  elements  and 
spirits  that  are  not  easy  to  banish.  Our  economic,  social  and 
political  organism  of  to-day  is  almost  a  grotesque  caricature 
of  the  splendid  democracy  of  1861.  We  point  to  the  treat- 
ment of  the  Negroes,  the  pro-Roman  Spanish-American 
War  and  the  subservience  of  the  McKinley,  Roosevelt  and 
Taft  administrations  to  Jesuitism  and  Capitalism. 

With  the  close  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the  American 
people  entered  into  a  period  of  unparalleled  agricultural 
and  industrial  development.  Within  two  generations  our 
population  has  multiplied  in  a  manner  until  then  unknown 
in  history;  the  wealth  of  the  country  has  increased  in  an 
enormous  degree ;  immense  territories  have  been  cultivated ; 
in  higher  industries  advances  have  been  made  with  astound- 
ing strides,  resulting  in  complete  industrial  independence. 
It  may  truthfully  be  said  that  in  material  progress  the 
United  States  during  the  last  half  of  a  century  has  become 
the  greatest  country  on  earth,  so  far  as  national  greatness 
consists  in  the  energy  and  number  of  citizens,  in  the  extent 
and  resources  of  territory,  in  agriculture  and  industry. 
These  are  facts  demonstrated  by  figures  and  by  tables. 

But  national  greatness  and  the  stability  of  democracies 
are  mainly  dependent  on  the  moral  and  intellectual  prog- 
ress of  the  people.  Of  course,  the  questions  arise :  have  the 
American  people  made  equal  advance  in  intelligence,  in 
political  wisdom,  and  in  all  their  social  relations ;  have  they 
carefully  preserved  the  morality  and  purity  which  alone 
made  possible  the  great  democracy  of  the  ante-bellum  days ; 
have  the  American  people  during  this  wonderful  period  of 
material  splendor  insisted  that  humanity  constitutes  a  part, 
by  far  the  most  important  part  of  political  economy,  and 
that  the  moral  life  of  a  people  and  of  man  are  of  greater 
concern  than  the  longest  column  of  figures  in  a  national 


94  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

show  of  material  progress;  have  the  American  people  con- 
sidered that  the  social  life  of  a  community  is  always  the 
foundation  of  its  political  life;  have  they  included  human 
nature  as  a  factor  in  the  solution  of  political  problems; 
were  they  conscious  of  the  fact  that  otherwise  all  deductions 
are  fallacious;  has  the  nation's  soul  always  responded  to 
the  demands  of  humanity ;  has  it  been  moved  solely  by  the 
ethics  of  the  race  of  which  it  is  a  part ;  have  the  American 
people  always  had  in  view  the  practical  application  of 
Christianity  to  life  as  the  secret  of  an  orderly,  beneficent 
and  lastinpr  condition  of  society ;  have  we  preserved  the 
moral  equilibrium  of  society  during  the  process  of  convert- 
ing the  heterogeneous  elements  of  our  population  into  a 
homogeneous  citizenship  and  this  in  spite  of  the  jarrings, 
inseparable  from  a  contemporaneous  change  in  our  eco- 
nomic conditions,  a  change  which  while  satisfying  some,  of 
necessity  olt'ended  others? 

The  touchstone  of  all  economic  and  social  advances  of  a 
nation,  of  the  permanence  of  its  political  and  social  institu- 
tions is  the  moral  standard  governing  public  life.  Until 
lately,  whether  through  carelessness  or  trust  in  Providence, 
whose  blessings  we  enjoyed  in  full  and  almost  thoughtlessly, 
we  have  failed  in  our  duty  to  examine  into  the  moral  con- 
dition of  our  body  politic  and  to  render  an  account  of  our 
stewardship  for  the  benefit  and  instruction  of  coming  gen- 
erations. Unfortunately,  like  the  ostrich,  we  buried  our 
faces  and  with  fatalism  trusted  in  good  fortune  to  make 
good  our  shortcomings  in  citizenship,  to  correct  our  political 
errors,  and  to  find  a  remedy  for  the  evils  eating  into  our 
political  organism,  evils  which  spring  from  want  of  thought 
and  are  the  bane  of  our  life,  knownothingism  and  boundless 
self-confidence.  These  blinded  us  to  the  truth  and  obscured 
to  our  understanding  the  symptoms  of  the  virulent  disease 
which  had  seized  our  body  politic  and  which  we  mistook 
for  a  silent  ailment  easily  yielding  to  the  cure-alls  recom- 
mended by  political  quacks  or  to  the  mysterious  and  sympa- 
thetic influences  with  which  our  imagination  invested  party 
politics.  The  poison  threatening  our  national  life  is  moral 
and  political  corruption,  the  dismal  shadow  of  democracies, 
and  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  the  sequence 
of  cause  and  effect  of  Parliamentarism,  Industrial  Feudal- 
ism, Capitalism  and  Romanism,  of  unchecked  representa- 
tive government  and  of  unchecked  competition  and  legal 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE         95 

spoliation.  If  we  apply  in  proper  time  the  remedies  found 
only  in  the  virtues  of  our  race  and  in  the  ethics  of  the 
Reformation,  we  may  successfully  beat  back  the  effects  of 
the  poison  and  establish  a  new  order  of  society  in  which 
even  the  germs  of  the  disease  shall  find  no  lodgment.  Oth- 
erwise we  shall  drift  into  Romanism  or  Anarchism,  and  the 
light  of  democracy  on  the  American  continent  will  be  for- 
ever extinguished. 

SECTION   II 

The  Conduct  of  the  War.  Properly  to  understand  the 
present  condition  of  society  in  the  United  States,  it  is  indis- 
pensable to  study  the  transitional  period  in  the  nation's 
history  which  commenced  with  the  organization  of  the  Re- 
publican party  and  closed  with  its  defeat  in  1912.  It  is 
also  essential  to  turn  back  our  thoughts  upon  the  immense 
sacrifices  in  blood  and  treasure  which  the  Civil  War  de- 
manded. "We  must  keep  in  mind  that  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  the  flower  of  the  people  were  for  years  withdrawn 
from  home  influences  and  from  their  ordinary  avocations, 
and  that  tens  of  thousands  of  these  had  no  issue.  We  must 
reflect  upon  the  terrible  phases  of  the  war,  its  savageness, 
its  bloodshedding,  its  general  demoralizing  tendencies  and 
that  tens  of  thousands,  the  most  noble  of  soul,  the  bravest 
of  heart  died  on  the  battlefields  or  in  hospitals.  ' '  Blood  is 
a  peculiar  juice,"  says  Doctor  Faust  in  Goethe's  sublime 
tragedy.  Blood  is  the  life  of  the  individual  and  of  nations. 
Its  partial  loss  weakens  the  human  system.  Nations  and 
individuals  are  affected  in  like  manner.  Every  war  of 
long  duration  lowers  the  moral  energies  of  the  organism  of 
society  and  its  vitality.  The  affections  and  passions  turn 
to  evil  and  the  nation's  heart  and  constitution  become 
morbid.  Such  a  blood-letting  as  the  American  nation  suf- 
fered during  the  Civil  War  will  affect  generations,  in  their 
intellectual,  moral  and  physical  development. 

During  a  crisis  for  the  fate  of  a  nation,  like  the  one  we 
passed  through  in  the  Civil  War,  the  enthusiasts,  the  spir- 
ited, and  the  patriots  respond  to  the  call  for  the  defense  of 
hearth  and  home.  The  aged,  the  physically  weak,  the 
indolent,  the  philistines  and  the  cowards  and  traitors  stay 
at  home.  While  the  patriots  defended  the  Union  and 
battled  in  the  cause  of  democracy  the  shrewd  and  avaricious 
seized  the  opportunities  for  riches  and  crowded  all  avenues 


96  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

to  preferment.  In  a  democracy,  in  no  way  prepared  for 
such  an  emergency,  the  inevitable  consequences  of  a  sudden 
and  violent  disturbance  of  the  equilibrium  of  society  and  of 
the  economic  relations  of  its  component  parts  are  partial 
and  temporary  dissolution  of  society,  a  general  shifting  of 
functions,  and  socially,  a  new  division  of  the  people  and  a 
gradual  readjustment  of  the  several  parts.  In  this  process 
of  reorganization,  for  reasons  already  mentioned,  cunning 
and  treason  had  the  advantage  of  patriotism  and  cowardice 
and  avarice  of  valor.  Whenever  such  a  disturbance  takes 
place  during  a  transitional  period  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  at 
a  time  when  it  is  passing  from  the  impetuous  vigor,  the  aspi- 
rations, and  indiscretions  of  youth  into  manhood,  and,  in 
economics,  is  changing  from  exclusively  agricultural  pur- 
suits into  industrialism,  the  effects  must  be  the  more 
marked,  and  their  vibrations  affect  the  foundations  of 
society.  This  happened  in  our  case.  We  entered  into  col- 
lective industry  suddenly,  therefore,  unprepared  and  under 
an  excessive  pressure,  acting  irregularly  and  unevenly,  on 
the  various  parts  of  the  body  politic.  While  the  patriots 
saved  the  framework  of  the  Union,  the  sudden  upheaval  in 
economics  displaced  social  equality  in  the  North,  the  foun- 
dation, and  thereby  assailed  democracy  and  made  illusory 
the  eternal  truths  expressed  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. 

The  progress  of  a  century  in  morals  and  politics,  in  fact, 
the  very  essentials  of  a  democratic  government  were  made 
nugatory  through  the  change  in  economics  in  which  the 
patriotic  and  progressive  part  of  the  people  could  take  no 
part  and  could  not  secure  to  society  the  full  benefits  accru- 
ing from  such  a  change  or  guard  against  its  dangers.  When 
the  Union  armies  were  disbanded,  the  new  economic  process 
and  its  attending  social  evils  had  advanced  to  an  extent 
which  carried  them  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  political 
action.  Moreover,  the  returning  soldiers  were  often  socially 
divorced  from  their  respective  communities  and,  as  a  body, 
totally  removed  from  the  sphere  of  their  former  lives. 
They  had  set  out  for  the  front  from  the  quiet  of  rural  homes 
and  provincial  towns  to  return  into  the  whirlpool  of  indus- 
trialism and  into  social  environments  which  within  a  few 
years  had  outgrown  provincialism  and  had  more  or  less  con- 
formed to  the  general  culture  of  the  world. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  our  parliamentarians  and 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE  97 

martinets,  entirely  oblivious  of  the  world's  progress  and 
of  the  passions  by  previous  agitation  engendered,  and  fail- 
ing to  perceive  the  revolutionary  character  of  the  impend- 
ing conflict,  prepared  only  for  a  "campaign  of  ninety 
days. ' '  They  believed  that  the  war  would  be  of  short  dura- 
tion. Thus  erring,  they  made  no  preparations  for  a  pro- 
tracted and  bloody  struggle  by  the  incessant  education  and 
discipline  of  the  material  available  for  armies.  The 
"Ninety  Days"  policy  cost  the  American  people  seas  of 
blood  and  mountains  of  treasure.  The  financial,  economic 
and  political  errors  of  our  Congressional  Solons,  and  the 
military  blunders  of  our  little  Napoleons  led  almost  to 
the  destruction  of  the  soul  and  sinew  of  the  nation. 

Acting  under  a  delusion  as  to  the  duration  of  the  war, 
the  government  relied  for  its  conduct  and  successful  issue 
on  volunteers  instead  of  on  levies.  In  the  first  stages  of 
the  war  it  exhausted  the  patriotic  stock  of  the  nation,  and, 
when  levies  were  ordered,  it  permitted  the  prostitution  of 
patriotism.  It  granted  to  the  cunning,  to  the  rich,  the 
cowards  and  traitors,  the  privilege  of  furnishing  substitutes 
who  were  drawn  from  the  slums  of  cities  and  the  dirt- 
hovels  the  world  over.  Thus,  the  representatives  of  a  dem- 
ocratic people  offered  a  premium  to  disloyalty  and  smoth- 
ered the  patriotic  fervor  of  entire  communities.  The  gov- 
ernment of  a  democracy  set  up  the  dollar  as  an  idol  and 
decreed  the  division  of  the  people  into  the  rich  and  exempt 
from  the  most  holy  of  patriotic  duties,  and  into  the  poor  and 
gladiators.  Consequently,  when  the  war  was  over,  society 
was  burdened  with  tens  of  thousands  of  mercenaries  of  all 
nationalities  altogether  unfitted  for  the  duties  and  enjoy- 
ment of  citizenship ;  other  tens  of  thousands  of  the  poor 
returned,  in  their  hearts  the  sting  of  reproach  which  pov- 
erty and  the  sneers  of  disloyalty  beget. 

Though  in  the  South  the  social  and  political  conditions 
were  different,  and  the  masses  could  not  lose  the  spirit  of 
democracy  because  they  never  possessed  it,  yet,  even  there, 
the  war  left  its  demoralizing  traces  behind.  Death's 
plentiful  harvest  in  the  ranks  of  the  chivalry  of  the  South 
nearly  destroyed  in  their  progeny  the  inborn  qualities  of 
culture  and  honor  which  were  the  redeeming  features  of 
the  Southern  planter  aristocracy  and  which  made  their 
rule  less  oppressive  and  less  destructive  to  the  moral  and 
material  welfare  of  the  North  than  that  of  their  descendants 


98  CASS(X'K  AND  SWORD 

has  proved  to  bo,  in  the  short  time,  since  the  South  again 
predominates  in  Washington. 

SECTION    III 

Lack  of  Genius  and  Statecraft.  When  with  the  growth 
in  territory,  wealth  and  population,  the  United  State's  had 
reached  an  epoch  in  history  in  which  they  were  to  emerge 
from  their  exclusive  position  in  civilization  and  endeavor  to 
take  their  proper  place  among  the  great  nations  and  civiliz- 
ing factors  of  the  earth,  the  transition  from  home  to  collec- 
tive industry  and  from  a  loosely  jointed  political  body  into 
a  homogeneous  whole,  into  a  nation,  became  a  necessity. 

In  the  age  of  rapid  communication  a  people  of  thirty 
millions  were  forced  to  merge  into  their  social  organism  all 
the  elements  which  in  their  totality  represent  the  culture 
of  the  age.  The  recognition  of  this  truth  led  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Republican  party  and  to  an  elementary  change 
in  our  economic  and  social  institutions.  Though  outwardly 
they  appear  to  be  unchanged,  yet,  in  their  essential  parts 
in  spirit  and  application  they  are  to-day  different.  The 
abolition  of  slavery  was  only  a  part  of  the  process  of  reor- 
ganization which  altered  the  general  character  and  mode 
of  life  of  the  American  people.  The  Civil  War  accelerated 
this  process  and  impressed  on  it  an  abnormal  and  singular 
condition.  In  a  certain  sense  our  growth  into  one  of  the 
great  industrial  and  political  nations  was  a  hot-house 
growth.  As  a  political  body  we  were  wanting  in  many  edu- 
cational conditions  which  should  have  preceded  such  a 
rapid  and  exceptionally  forceful  expansion  of  social  ener- 
gies. Therefore,  the  political  frame  within  which  these 
forces  had  to  work  themselves  out  became  unduly  strained 
and  the  order  and  balance  of  society  greatly  deranged. 
Thus  we  find  ourselves  at  the  close  of  the  transitional 
period,  financially,  socially  and  politically,  in  a  chaotic 
condition. 

Living  almost  in  seclusion,  away  from  the  cultural  life  of 
Europe,  and  being  exempt  from  all  collisions  with  advanced 
or  powerful  neighbors,  and  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  appar- 
ently inexhaustible  natural  resources,  the  intellectual  devel- 
opment of  the  American  people  had  been  of  uniform  rate 
and  character,  which,  of  course,  was  not  conducive  to  the 
growth  of  genius.  It  is  true  that  the  parliamentary  struggle 
over  the  extension  of  slavery  had  produced  great  intellects 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE  99 

and  orators,  but  their  efforts  were  made  in  a  cause  in  which 
the  one  side  appealed  to  the  sympathies,  but  rarely  to  the  in- 
tellect of  a  plain,  liberty-loving,  agricultural  population,  and 
the  other  side  defended  an  institution  already  condemned 
by  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Renown  is  easily  achieved  in  a 
secluded  community  wherein  culture  is  of  a  moderate  degree 
and  uniform  and  the  sympathies  of  the  masses  are  aroused. 
]\Ioreover,  before  the  war,  our  prominent  men  were  either 
self-taught  or,  with  very  few  exceptions,  graduates  of  col- 
leges, which  then  lacked  nearly  all  the  requisites  of  univer- 
sities. Our  politicians  could  not  acquire  the  breadth  and 
depth  of  education  which  makes  disciplined  minds  and  the 
love  of  study  and  research  profitable ;  they  were  often  men 
of  high  ideals  but  without  the  familiarity  with  history  that 
is  the  foundation  of  all  true  statesmanship.  Each  category 
was  mostly  composed  of  lawyers  whose  minds  are  usually 
cramped  by  the  inanimateness  of  their  studies  and  practice 
which  ordinarily  destroy  the  creative  power  of  imagination. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  generation  conducting  the 
war  did  not  produce  any  statesmen-genius  able  to  compre- 
hend the  greatness  of  the  task  and  to  foresee  all  the  evil  con- 
sequences which  inevitably  follow  civil  war  and  to  propose 
measures  suitable  to  direct  the  energies  of  the  people  into 
proper  channels.  That  the  period  mentioned  produced  men 
of  great  talents  and  patriotism  is  true,  men  of  the  compass  of 
mind  of  Stanton,  Sumner,  Wilson,  and  Stevens.  They  were 
not  of  the  caliber  of  Richelieu,  of  Cromwell,  or  of  Bismarck. 
The  politician  of  the  North  was  the  child  of  parliamentar- 
ism, his  genius  that  of  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  parties 
and  factions  and  his  forum  the  village  meeting  house.  He 
was  the  product  of  an  agricultural  and  provincial  popula- 
tion living  under  a  system  of  equitable  division  of  property 
enforcing  an  intellectual  level  which  he  dare  not  sur- 
mount for  fear  of  losing  his  foothold  in  public  life.  Under 
existing  social  conditions  with  universal  suffrage,  our  po- 
litical life  has  been  an  endless  chain  of  expedients  to 
appease  the  clamor  and  fancies  of  the  masses.  Thus  public 
life  fostered  boundless  self-confidence  and  ignorance,  which 
is  always  so  prone  to  lead  to  stubbornness.  It  fostered 
utter  disregard  of  the  experience  of  mankind  that,  in  the 
moral  and  rational  order,  everything  which  is  done  by 
force  and  improvisation  is  shortlived,  and  that  long  initia- 
tion, organic  development  and  growth  from  within,  form 


100  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  essentials  of  all  political  measures  of  permanence  and  of 
lasting  benefit  to  the  people. 

The  history  of  the  Civil  War  whenever  truly  written, 
while  telling  on  every  page  of  heroic  deeds  and  able  general- 
ship, will  show  that  the  greatest  military-  drama  was 
devoid  of  military-  genius.  Lafayette  said  of  the  War  of 
Independence :  ' '  The  greatest  of  causes  won  by  contests 
of  sentinels  and  outposts."  Of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  it 
may  be  said:  "Democracy  triumphed  by  the  rushes  of  its 
masses  and  the  endurance,  intelligence  and  heroism  of  the 
individual  soldier."  This  singular  condition  in  the  great- 
est war  of  history,  the  fancies  of  the  politicians  and  their 
conniption,  the  greediness  of  our  shylocks,  and  the  clamor 
of  the  masses  unduly  prolonged  the  war.  For  these  reasons 
the  end  was  reached  not  through  the  application  of  the 
highest  principles  of  war,  but  through  a  most  unscientific 
policy  of  mutual  slaughter,  a  policy  based  on  the  cruel 
calculation  that  the  North  would  be  able  to  submit  to  the 
bloodletting  process  for  a  longer  period  than  the  South. 
This  barbarous  policy  led  to  a  wanton  destruction  of  life, 
to  the  demoralization  of  the  victor  and  to  the  total  exhaus- 
tion of  the  vanquished.  Democracy  possibly  profited  by 
it.  The  policy  of  mutual  slaughter  to  the  last  ditch  insured 
the  defeat  of  the  planter  aristocracy,  and  the  Catonian 
character  of  Stanton  saved  the  North  from  military  despot- 
ism. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  the  underlying  principle  of  the 
Civil  War  was  not  sooner  understood  in  the  South — the 
question  is  whether  it  is  now  properly  recognized.  It  was 
not  merely  the  question  of  maintenance  of  the  Union  or  of 
slavery  but  the  conflux  of  two  civilizations,  of  a  young  and 
growing  social  system  against  an  old  and  dying  one,  of 
modern  light  against  the  dark  ages,  a  bloody  demonstration 
of  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
of  aristocracy.  It  was  a  war  of  Roundhead  against  Cav- 
alier. At  Appomattox  there  met,  not  two  men  but  two 
civilizations  in  the  gallant  figure  of  the  graybearded 
Knight,  the  picture  of  a  soldier  and  a  nobleman,  and  the 
short,  unimpressive  figure  of  the  tanner  with  the  strong 
plebeian  face  and  the  slouchy  dress,  vanquished  and  victor, 
Lee  and  Grant. 

The  glory  of  the  war  belongs  to  the  common  soldier  of  the 
North  and  South.     Unfortunatelv  the  latter  did  not  at  all 


THE  FOUXDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        101 

or  too  late  discern  the  fact  that  he  jeopardized  life  and 
liberty  in  a  war  for  the  rich  and  against  true  democracy. 

SECTION  IV 

Abraham  Lincoln.  The  achievements  of  the  war  are 
the  glory  of  the  Northern  democracy  and  of  one  who,  in 
ages  to  come,  will  be  known  as  one  of  the  wisest,  the  most 
patriotic  and  the  most  humane  of  men. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  though  not  of  imperial  genius,  became 
the  savior  of  his  country.  His  practical  wisdom,  his  sense 
of  duty,  his  humanity,  his  unselfishness,  and  plebeian  origin, 
his  knowledge  of  human  nature,  of  politics  and  of  his 
people,  the  simplicity,  purity,  and  pathos  of  his  character 
and  the  incomparable  kindness  of  heart,  qualities  of  mind 
and  soul,  which  under  the  circumstances  surrounding  the 
greatest  of  revolutions  and  wars  more  than  compensated 
for  the  lack  of  genius  and  covered  the  people  with  a  mys- 
terious influence  inspiring  patriotism  and  overawing  pas- 
sion and  treason.  From  his  heart  flowed  through  the 
hearts  of  the  people  that  magnetic  power  which  arouses  all 
the  affections  of  mind  and  soul  and  which  in  humanity  is 
the  creative  force.  It  is  a  phenomenon  of  history  that  the 
more  far  reaching  the  aims  of  any  cause  or  the  more  it 
appeals  to  the  emotions,  the  more  do  nations  embody  it  in 
an  individual.  Thus  Lincoln's  personality  inflamed  the 
patriotism  of  the  masses  higher  and  higher,  the  more  the 
cause  of  the  North  expanded  into  a  struggle  for  humanity's 
sake. 

The  Jesuitical  conspiracy  which  selected  the  greatest  of 
Americans  for  its  victim  was  a  crime  against  the  victor  and 
the  vanquished,  a  crime  against  coming  generations,  a 
crime  against  humanity.  On  the  eve  of  the  reconstruction 
of  American  society  Lincoln's  death  was  an  irreparable  loss 
to  the  American  people.  North  and  South.  It  was  a  crime 
conceived  in  the  synagogue  of  the  devil.  The  genius  of 
the  American  people  was  made  the  victim  of  a  conspiracy 
at  a  time  when  he  might  have  counseled  such  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  society  as  to  secure  it  forever  from  the  very  dangers 
which  now  begin  seriously  to  menace  it. 

The  events  during  the  riots  in  New  York  and  Boston  in 
1863  and  their  specifically  Irish-Romish  character  had  left 
a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  Lincoln's  mind.  His 
acute  and  penetrating  vision  had  disclosed  to  him  their 


102  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

origin  and  tlieir  drift.  To  a  confidant  he  often  expressed 
himself  on  this  point  in  clear  and  forcible  language.  To 
charge  the  planter  aristocracy  with  any  connection  with 
the  crime  of  the  age  is  ridiculous  and  demagogical. 

As  to  the  arch-conspirators — the  time  of  its  commission 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  all  attending  circumstances,  the 
personality  of  the  assassins,  and  particularly  the  affiliations 
of  the  female  plotter  point  in  an  entirely  different  direc- 
tion. 

When  during  the  Kulturkampf  the  life  of  Bismarck  was 
attempted  he  expressed  himself  sarcastically  and  meta- 
I)horically  that  the  assassin  had  been  hanging  on  the  coat 
tails  of  the  clerical  party.  Certainly  it  cannot  be  said  that 
the  assassins  of  Lincoln  were  hanging  on  the  coat  tails  of 
the  planter  aristocracy.  Should  the  greatest  crime  against 
humanity  committed  since  the  crucifixion  ever  be  laid  bare 
in  all  its  ramifications,  it  would,  undoubtedly,  appear  that 
Lincoln's  assassins  were  hanging  onto  the  garments  of  a 
more  flowing  style  than  those  worn  by  the  Southern  aris- 
tocracy, to  garments,  in  cut  and  fabric,  altogether  foreign 
to  the  American  taste. 

It  was  not  until  this  world's  tragedy  had  convulsed  so- 
ciety in  every  civilized  country  that  a  comprehension  of 
the  truth  came  over  some  of  those  who  had  been  so  scornful 
of  the  rail-splitter  and  his  Government  of  ''Mudsills."  It 
was  then  that  Tom  Taylor  looked  back  at  that  long  list  of 
taunts  against  Lincoln  for 

His  gaunt,  gnarl'd  hands,  his  unkempt,  bristling  hair. 
His  gari)  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 

His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair. 

Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please, 

and  confessed: 

Yes;  he  had  liv'd  to  shame  me  from  my  sneer, 
To  lame  my  pencil  and  confute  my  pen; 

To  make  me  own  this  hind  of  Princes'  peer, 
This  rail-splitter  a  trueborn  king  of  men. 

It  was  an  apology  not  to  Lincoln  alone  but  to  the  North, 
the  North  and  its  civilization  embodied  in  him. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        103 

SECTION    V 

The  Reconstruction  Policy,  the  Negro  Question,  and 
the  South.  The  sublime  in  Lincoln's  character  bridled  all 
political  passions,  his  death  released  them  and  was  the  sig- 
nal for  a  carnival  of  political  corruption,  crass  ignorance 
and  demagogy,  and  bacchanalian  madness  on  the  part  of 
the  mammon  worshipers.  It  set  American  society  adrift 
on  tumultuous  seas  to  be  swept  on  to  destruction  either  by 
the  treacherous  undercurrent  of  Popery  or  by  the  breakers 
of  popular  unrest.  Nearly  a  century  intervened  between 
Washington  and  Buchanan,  the  one  the  prudent,  strong- 
willed,  dignified  and  patriotic,  though  of  course  undemo- 
cratic, representative  of  the  classes,  the  other  the  tool  of 
the  slavocracy,  the  master  of  indecision  and  the  model  of 
stubborn  irresolution  and  cowardly  treachery.  Within 
two  generations  of  Lincoln's  martyrdom,  Roosevelt,  the 
ideal  representative  of  the  most  selfish,  arrogant,  and  in- 
sipid bourgeoisie  of  the  world,  has  been  worshiped  as  a 
demigod,  as  the  savior  of  the  money  traders,  and  as  the 
patron  saint  of  the  Romish  Klu-Klux  factions  which  had 
masqueraded  corruption,  ignorance,  despotic  and  theo- 
cratic designs  under  the  cover  of  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  and  now  attempt  to  hoodwink  the  peo- 
ple with  the  Progressive  party  that  is  neither  milk  nor 
water. 

The  reconstruction  period  which  followed  the  close  of  the 
war  made  the  lack  of  statesmen  painfully  apparent.  Our 
politicians  were  unable  to  agree  on  a  fixed  policy  applying 
the  lessons  of  history  and  conforming  to  the  changes  in 
the  nation's  economic  and  social  life  or  preparing  for  the 
exigencies  of  the  future.  All  political  questions  of  what- 
ever nature  were  solved  from  the  standpoint  of  the  partisan 
and,  of  course,  in  an  irrational  manner. 

Five  millions  of  slaves  had  been  freed.  The  reconstruc- 
tion policy  as  embodied  in  constitutional  amendments 
granted  to  the  former  slave  full  citizenship.  But  it  also 
decreed  that  he  should  remain  a  pariah  and  peon  of  his 
former  master.  It  is  true  that  emancipation  converted  the 
negroes  into  free  laborers,  earning  wages,  and  in  theory 
with  power  to  work  for  whom  and  where  they  pleased, 
liut  reconstruction  left  to  the  planter  aristocracy  the  land 
the  only  source  from  which  the  freed  could  draw  suste- 


104  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

nance,  because  the  conditions  of  their  race  at  that  time 
excluded  them  from  the  labor  market  of  the  world.  We 
gave  to  the  negro  liberty,  yet  placed  the  fruit  of  liberty, 
economic  independence,  outside  of  his  reach. 

We  granted  to  the  emancipated  negro,  who  at  the  time 
was  the  white  man's  equal  only  in  certain  inalienable 
ri«j,hts,  l)ut  otherwise  altogether  unfitted  for  the  duties  of 
citizenship,  sovereign  rights,  and  thus  prepared  the  condi- 
tions for  the  political  corruption  in  the  South,  whence  it 
has  entered  into  every  department  of  the  national  govern- 
ment and  almost  into  that  of  every  hamlet  in  the  country. 
Further,  it  became  but  a  question  of  time  when  the  old 
slavocracy  should  again  exert  a  powerful  political  influence 
based  on  the  indirect  ownership  of  the  negro,  yea,  an  even 
larger  influence  than  before,  because  under  the  new  ar- 
rangement five  votes  were  to  be  counted  in  favor  of  sec- 
tionalism and  class  rule  where  in  the  days  of  slavery  only 
three  were  allowed.  Whenever  the  people  of  the  North 
should  come  to  entertain  the  delusion  that  Southern  so- 
ciety had  become  profoundly  different  from  what  it  was 
before  the  w^ar,  had  become  permeated  wuth  the  qualities 
of  democracy,  the  control  of  the  negro  vote  was  bound  to 
be  shifted  from  the  adventurers  and  carpet-baggers  to  the 
owners  of  the  soil. 

Having  regained  in  a  higher  degree  the  political  power 
represented  by  the  negro  vote.  Southern  society,  acting  as 
a  political  unit,  had  to  regain  its  ascendency  in  national 
politics,  in  as  much  as  its  former  auxiliary  party,  the  dem- 
ocratic party  in  the  North  had  unfortunately  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country,  preserved  its  organization  and  in  it 
the  tradition  of  subserviency  to  the  chivalry  of  the  South. 
Without  brain  or  principle,  and,  therefore,  bound  to  serve 
in  bondage,  the  democratic  party  in  the  North  had  in  the 
interregnum  also  submitted  to  a  new  task  master,  the 
Roman-Irish  hierarchy.  The  Southern  politicians  found 
it  an  easy  matter  to  arrange  with  Jesuitism,  a  power  striv- 
ing for  the  same  reactionary  ends  and  with  which,  in  the 
halcyon  days  of  slavery,  they  always  had  held  relations — 
each  party  having  resource  to  the  reservatio  meritalis  in 
cheating  the  other  whenever  the  purpose  set  out  for  should 
be  accomplished. 

At  present  the  political  status  of  the  planter  aristocracy 
in  the  organism  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  transition  and 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        105 

their  future  party  affiliations  will  depend  on  the  influence 
of  Industrial  Feudalism  and  Capitalism  on  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  parties  in  the  North.  The  new  South  will  lose  the 
traditions  of  old  with  its  progress  in  industrialism. 
Whenever  tliis  progress  shall  have  reached  a  certain  stage, 
the  ruling  class  of  the  South  will  again  assume  the  full  and 
permanent  mastery  of  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  be- 
cause of  race  prejudices  the  Southern  aristocracy  will  con- 
tinue politically  to  control  the  ignorant  poor  whites  and 
therefore,  the  South  will  continue  to  act  as  a  unit  and  as 
an  industrial  power  will  command  the  cheapest  labor  in 
the  country.  It  will  ally  itself  with  Capitalism  and  supply 
it  with  the  means  to  subjugate  the  masses  in  the  North, 

The  low  order  of  intellect  of  the  Southern  poor  whites 
and  the  helplessness  of  the  negro  will  insure  to  the  ruling 
class  in  the  South  a  class  of  labor  economically  and  po- 
litically dependent.  Because  of  the  race  prejudice  which 
is  skillfully  and  continually  nourished  in  the  interest  of 
the  ruling  class,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Southern 
farmer  ^nll  ever  lastingly  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  landed 
estate  and  join  his  social  and  political  fortunes  with  the 
democracy  of  the  North. 

The  time  may  come  when  the  Northern  democracy,  to 
defend  its  liberties  or  rather,  to  regain  them,  ivill  again  ivar 
against  the  South.  The  ignorant  and  shiftless  negro  and 
the  equally  ignorant  and  worthless  poor  white  of  the  South 
are  the  proper  material  for  the  pretorian  bands  of  Capi- 
talism. In  the  negro  regiments  of  the  regular  army  the 
non-commissioned  officers  of  a  negro  army  are  qualified 
for  war  and  filled  with  the  ardor  of  militarism. 

It  is  in  the  nature  of  our  people  that  their  political  reso- 
lutions and  actions  are  taken  in  fits  and  starts.  This  na- 
tional peculiarity  gave  the  cranks  of  liberty  the  opportun- 
ity to  solve  the  negro  question  in  a  perverse  manner.  Thus 
the  North  forged  the  fetters  with  which  the  vanquished 
were  to  enslave  the  victor  and  to  imperil  the  progress  of 
democracy.  We  saved  the  negro  from  the  lash  and  left 
him  to  the  mercy  of  the  shot-gun.  We  conquered  the  foes 
of  liberty  and  left  to  them  the  resources  of  war.  We  ele- 
vated the  negro  to  citizenship  and  left  him  the  choice  be- 
tween starvation  and  serfdom.  We  emancipated  the  negro 
slaves  and  submitted  to  the  enslavement  of  the  white  labor 
of  the   North   by   Capitalism   and   demagogism.     We   de- 


106  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

stroyed  the  confederacy  aud  surrendered  the  government 
of  the  Union  to  tlie  very  class  which  made  the  former  pos- 
sible. We  wrought  folly  in  Israel  when  we  sacrificed  the 
achievements  of  the  war  and  of  the  generations  preceding 
it.  The  people  of  the  North  failed  to  profit  from  the  study 
of  history  and,  therefore,  failed  to  dispossess  the  defeated 
Southern  aristocracy  from  all  political  power — they  were 
left  in  the  possession  of  the  land.  The  chapter  of  Ameri- 
can history  which  tells  of  the  reconstruction  policy  and  its 
results  is  discreditable  to  the  Republican  party  and  in- 
tensely humiliating  to  the  veterans  of  the  war  and  to  the 
great  democracy  of  the  North. 

SECTION   VI 

The  Negro  Question.  No  Nation  is  safe  wherein  a  num- 
ber of  people  are  not  within  the  pale  of  justice,  or  suffer, 
or  enjoy,  as  a  marked  class  an  exceptional  position  in  the 
body  politic.  In  a  democracy  all  must  enjoy  equal  justice 
and  equal  rights,  or,  sooner  or  later,  the  masses  generally 
will  be  reduced  politically  and  in  economics  to  the  level  of 
the  exceptional  body. 

To  safeguard  the  Republic  and  our  democratic  masses 
in  the  North,  the  Negro  question  in  the  South  must  be 
solved  as  early  and  thoroughly  as  possible,  and  not  in  the 
spirit  of  prejudice  and  race-hatred,  but  in  justice  and 
equity.  The  Nation  gave  its  life-blood  freely  aud  treasures 
immense  for  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro  slaves  who  were 
not  immigrants,  but  captives  on  whose  labor  the  aristocracy 
of  the  South  was  reared  as  a  political  menace  to  the  de- 
mocracy of  the  North.  After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  it 
appeared  to  the  student  of  culture-history  unwise  to  grant 
to  the  ignorant  and  helpless  Negro  masses  of  the  South  the 
right  to  vote.  They  were  not  fitted  for  the  privilege.  It 
was  also  a  mistaken  policy  to  restore  that  privilege  to  the 
ignorant  and  low-bred  whites  of  the  South  and  to  leave 
the  large  estates  intact  and  in  the  possession  of  the  South- 
ern aristocracy. 

Owning  the  soil,  under  then  existing  conditions  in  the 
South,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  former  slave-holders 
should  again  acquire  supreme  political  control,  the  more 
so  as  they  commanded  an  ignorant  lazy  mass  of  whites  who 
were  rather  below  than  above  the  moral  level  of  the  ex- 
slaves.     A  chaotic  social  inequality  before  the  courts  was 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        107 

created  in  defiance  of  the  Constitution.  Moreover,  the 
power  of  the  Southern  aristocracy  was  augmented  by  giv- 
ing tlem  additional  representation  through  the  reactionary- 
rebellious  acts  of  disfranchising  the  Negroes.  To  the 
sociologist  it  is  an  alarming  condition.  The  careful  ob- 
server cannot  fail  to  notice  certain  signs  on  the  political 
horizon  which  can  only  mean  that  the  Southern  landed 
aristocracy  is  again  striving  for  the  mastery  of  the  Nation, 
supported  by  the  vast  aggregations  of  capital  in  the  North 
and  by  other  reactionary  agencies.  It  appears  to  be  but 
a  question  of  time  when  economic  changes  will  unite  the 
moneyed  powers  of  the  North,  the  landed  aristocracy  of 
the  South  and  the  Roman  hierarchy  for  the  gradual  dis- 
integration of  the  American  democracy. 

It  is  impossible  to  deport  twelve  millions  of  a  race  regu- 
larly domiciled  and,  by  virtue  of  their  bravery  in  the  Civil 
War,  as  part  of  the  Army  of  the  Republic,  entitled  to  all 
the  blessings  of  American  citizenship.  Furthermore,  the 
presence  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  its  agricultural  and  industrial  development. 

How  then  can  the  Negro  question  be  solved  gradually, 
rationally  and  to  the  common  good? 

We  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  salvation  of  the  Negro  is 
to  be  left  to  himself  under  the  tuition  and  guidance  of  an 
intellectual  Negro  class  who,  in  youth,  should  enjoy  co- 
education in  Northern  universities  where  only  they  can 
be  fitted  for  the  leadership  of  their  race.  During  their 
intellectual  and  moral  development  they  must  be  in  con- 
stant contact  with  their  white  fellows  to  absorb  into  their 
character  whatever  superiority  there  may  be  in  the  whites. 
The  Southern  Negro  must  be  made  to  feel  his  o^vn  responsi- 
bility in  the  establishment  of  the  civil,  social  and  moral 
standard  of  the  community  in  which  he  lives. 

He  must  feel  that  he  is,  really,  a  part  of  it  and  not  merely 
an  intruder  to  be  hated  and  despised  or  patronized  and 
considered  an  irresponsible  being.  He  needs  the  sympathy 
of  the  Northern  people  and  the  leadership  of  an  intellectual 
class  who  by  contact  with  the  best  white  men  have  disci- 
plined mind  and  soul  and  mastered  the  science  of  good 
government.  We  must  regard  the  black  man  as  a  member 
of  the  human  family  and  a  contributing  factor  to  civiliza- 
tion. It  had  its  beginning  in  elementary  grades.  Lucius 
AnnaBus  Seneca  in  telling  us  how  things  do  grow,  says: 


108  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"The  temples  are  builded  upon  their  foundations,  as  also 
these  great  walls  of  Rome  are.  and  yet  that  which  was  first 
laid  to  sustain  this  whole  work  lies  hidden  under  earth. 
The  like  falleth  out  in  all  other  things.  The  greatest  that 
they  attain  unto  in  time  doth  always  obscure  their  begin- 
nings." That  on  which  the  foundation  of  Negro  civiliza- 
tion in  the  South  will  be  reared  is  yet  hidden  in  the  soul 
of  the  Negro.  It  must  be  evolved  and  prepared  by  an  in- 
tellectual class,  this  part  of  the  race  to  bear  the  great  weight 
of  modern  civilization. 

If  we  permit  the  Southern  aristocracy  to  reduce  the 
millions  of  Negroes  to  peonship  and  to  keep  the  poor  whites 
in  ignorance  and  poverty,  to  establish  a  State  within  the 
Union  foreign  to  it  in  all  that  makes  a  democracy  possible, 
we  call  into  being  a  destructive  force  that  will  master  the 
people  of  the  North.  From  its  very  nature  it  must  be  an 
aggressive  force.  In  a  few  years  we  will  have  returned  to 
a  state  of  society  in  the  South  like  that  which  made  the 
Civil  War  a  necessity.  Will  we  then  be  in  a  condition  to 
meet  successfully  the  reactionary  forces  of  the  South?  In 
a  generation  or  two  the  re-enslaved  Negro  will  again  be 
reduced  to  utter  helplessness  and  to  an  almost  animal 
existence.  The  status  of  the  poor  white  will  not  be 
changed.  They  are  and  will  be  chattel.  In  the  opinion  of 
the  writer  the  Confederacy  failed  of  success  in  the  War  of 
the  Rebellion  for  the  reason  that  the  Southern  statesmen 
through  cowardice  and  prejudice  did  not  arm  the  Negro,  and 
this  immediately  upon  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  Because  of 
his  total  ignorance  and  the  resultant  absence  of  moral  judg- 
ment the  slave  would  have  willingly  fought  for  his  master. 
Proof  thereof  is  that  during  the  war  not  a  single  rebellion 
of  the  slaves  was  recorded  even  in  sections  of  the  South  left 
without  any  protection  by  white  males.  Even  as  late  as 
1864  the  writer  met  Negroes  working  in  the  fields  of  Georgia 
and  Louisiana,  who,  at  the  approach  of  the  Union  soldiers, 
ran  away  in  terrible  fright.  In  no  distant  future,  as  a  result 
of  the  economic  shortcoming  and  social  vices  of  Industrialism 
and  Commercialism,  the  Northern  people  will  not  be  in  a 
moral  and  physical  condition  to  meet  the  compact  ignorant 
masses  of  the  South,  white  and  black,  directed  by  a  selfish 
but  highly  intelligent  aristocracy. 

To  protect  the  Northern  democracy  and  to  insure  its 
cultural  progression  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  change 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        109 

without  delay  political  conditions  in  the  South.  Whether 
under  the  Constitution  franchise  in  State  and  local  elec- 
tions can  be  restored  to  the  Negro  by  an  appeal  to  the  courts 
is  problematical.  It  is  also  more  than  questionable,  whether 
with  the  Negro  in  his  present  uncultured  state  this  would  be 
for  the  real  good  of  the  masses.  But  with  respect  to 
national  elections  the  disfranchisement  of  the  Negro  is  an 
important  matter  to  the  Northern  masses.  In  fact,  it  is  a 
vital  matter  from  the  point  of  justice  and  equal  representa- 
tion, and  for  the  very  continuance  of  democratic  institu- 
tions. One  of  the  causes  of  the  Civil  War  was  the  unequal 
representation  of  the  North  and  South  in  Congress,  espe- 
cially in  the  House  of  Representatives.  There  is  at  present 
only  one  way  to  remove  such  injustice  and  reduction  of  the 
Northern  citizen's  sovereignty.  It  is  the  enforcement  of 
the  fifteenth  amendment  in  the  National  elections  and  their 
supervision  by  national  officers,  supported,  if  necessaiy,  by 
the  army  of  the  United  States  as  a  posse  comitatus. 

There  is  no  more  pressing  duty  of  the  National  govern- 
ment than  the  education  of  the  Negroes  and  poor  whites  of 
the  South  in  schools  fully  up  to  the  standard  of  the  North. 
The  Southern  aristocracy  will  never  consent  to  an  effective 
public  school  system.  This  is  to  be  expected.  From  their 
standpoint  they  are  right.  Why  should  they  tax  them- 
selves to  undermine  and  eventually  to  destroy  their  power 
to  protect  and  advance  their  material  interests.  But  the 
democracy  is  deeply  interested  in  the  reduction  of  tlie 
Southern  aristocracy  that  they  may  not  cooperate  with 
the  reactionary  forces  of  the  North  and  at  a  decisive  point 
of  the  struggle  march  their  battalions  to  the  North.  It  is 
about  time  that  the  Tillmans  and  Vardamans  were  made  to 
know  that  the  patience  of  Northern  intelligence  and  democ- 
racy is  almost  exhausted. 

History  teaches  that  every  progress  of  the  human  race 
was  made  under  the  leadership  of  an  intellectual  class, 
whether  in  the  garb  of  holy  calling  or  in  the  toga  of  the  phi- 
losopher. It  will  be  so  with  the  American  Negro.  The 
training  of  a  few  in  manual  labor  will  not  help  him.  The 
great  intellectual  advances  made  by  the  Negro  within  the 
short  space  of  forty-odd  years  guarantee  the  creation  of 
such  a  class.  His  political  emancipation  must  be  of  inner 
growth  and  left  to  him,  to  his  moral  self  and  the  wisdom 


no  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  moderation  of  his  leaders  and  to  the  rapidly  approach- 
ing soeial  and  eeononiie  changes  the  world  over. 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  since  emancipation  almost 
half  a  century  has  passed  into  time  without  any  effort  on 
the  part  of  our  National  government  to  ascertain  in  a 
scientific  manner  the  time  relation  of  the  two  races  in  re- 
gard to  physical  and  intellectual  differences,  if  there  are 
any.  We  have  left  this  all-important  matter,  one  of  the 
most  difficult  to  the  anthropologist,  to  prejudiced  traditions 
and  to  the  twaddle  of  politicians,  to  brutishness,  egotism 
and  greed,  or  to  the  hysterically  inclined.  A  well  quali- 
fied and  unprejudiced  commission  should  for  years  carefully 
and  conscientiously  study  the  subject,  and  their  report 
should  determine  whether  the  Negro  question  shall  be 
solved  gradually  by  amalgamation,  or,  as  the  student  must 
now  believe,  by  the  elevation  of  the  unmixed  race  to  the 
average  standard  of  every  day  civilization.  If  the  referee 
in  this  matter,  after  forty  years  of  studj^  of  this  social  ques- 
tion is  correct  in  the  premises,  the  Negro  does  not  desire 
amalgamation,  and  whatever  there  is  of  it  has  come  not 
by  his  choice  but  by  the  action  of  the  ancestors  of  the  men 
of  the  South  who  now  openly  or  in  secret  enjoy  the  lynch- 
ing bee. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Shortcomings  of  the  Republican  Party 

SECTIOISr   I 

Financial  and  Economic  Heresies,  and  the  National 
Bank  System.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion we  were  in  the  rueful  throes  of  a  financial  crisis, 
the  result  of  an  irrational  economic  policy  dictated  by  the 
planter-aristocracy  of  the  South. 

Too  long  the  American  people  had  been  satisfied  to  till 
the  soil  and  to  barter  their  harvest  for  the  industrial  prod- 
ucts of  Europe.  Like  every  other  agricultural  nation 
which,  since  the  era  of  collective  industry  set  in,  adhered 
to  this  policy,  we  were  made  the  victim  of  spoliation  by  the 
industrial  peoples.  AVe  possessed  the  richest  country  on 
earth  and  yet  were  wanting  in  national  wealth.  As  a 
young  braggart  nation  boasting  of  our  inexhaustible  re- 
sources and  of  our  smartness,  we  suffered  effete  Europe 
to  despoil  us  of  our  precious  metals,  to  exploit  our  labor, 
and  to  burden  our  future  with  usurious  practices.  In  pos- 
session of  the  richest  gold  and  silver  mines,  we  suffered 
from  scarcity  of  money,  and  dubious  promises  of  wildcat 
banks  were  our  circulating  medium  of  exchange.  Sud- 
denly the  conduct  of  the  war  commanded  the  raising  of 
large  sums  of  money.  Here  again  the  theory  of  the 
"Ninety-days'  "War"  failed  us.  At  the  outset,  we  did  not 
prepare  financially  for  a  protracted  struggle.  We  ap- 
pealed to  the  patriotism  of  the  people  and  exhausted  right 
at  the  start  the  immediately  available  resources  of  the 
country  with  which  we  should  have  supplied  the  needs  of 
every  day  life.  When  these  funds  were  exhausted,  we  set 
the  printing  presses  in  motion  and  appealed  to  the  capi- 
talists of  Europe,  pledging  the  resources  of  the  country  and 
imposing  on  generations  the  task  of  redemption  at  usurious 
interest. 

We  compelled  generations  to  toil  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  International  Capitalism,  and  mortgaged  to  it  the  future 
of  the  nation.     Though  our  politicians  evolved  a  mere  hand 

111 


112  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

to  mouth  financial  policy,  we  yet  lauded  their  wisdom.  We 
exalted  their  patriotism  when  they  created  the  National 
Bank  system,  the  most  gi^'antic  scheme  of  robbei*y  ever  at- 
tempted, the  greatest  of  all  the  infamies  to  which  the  Ameri- 
can iieople  meekly  submitted.  We  called  on  the  "Uncles" 
of  the  world  and  said:  "Here,  we  pledge  all  the  resources 
of  the  richest  country  on  earth  and  the  energies  of  an  hon- 
est and  progressive  people  and  of  their  descendants; 
loan  us  your  money.  We  will  pay  you  the  interest  you 
demand  and  a  large  bonus  for  accommodation  and  the 
risks  of  war,  and  we  will  return  to  you  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  face  value  of  the  loan  in  the  shape  of  paper 
money,  which  you  can  lend  to  our  manufacturers  and 
farmers  at  your  pleasure  and  at  your  price  and  with  which 
you  can  speculate  and  corner  the  necessities  of  life  and 
create  fictitious  values  to  rob  labor  of  its  fruit.  We  sur- 
render to  you  part  of  our  sovereignty,  the  right  to  issue 
money,  that  you  may  enslave  trade  and  industry  and 
husbandry  by  indirect  taxation  and  the  jugglery  of  the 
contraction  and  expansion  of  the  currency."  We  despised 
Bourbon  and  Papal  rule  in  Naples  and  Rome  because  it 
tolerated  and  blessed  bands  of  bandits  for  reactionary  pur- 
poses; we  legalized  the  most  gigantic  scheme  of  robbery 
and  lauded  as  patriots  the  associations  of  shylocks  who 
have  since  the  war  defrauded  and  robbed  the  American 
people.  We  borrowed  thousands  of  millions  at  ruinous 
rates  and  paid  our  patriotic  bankers  for  superfluous  serv- 
ices in  placing  these  loans.  We  paid  and  are  pa.ying  to 
the  shylocks  of  the  world  interest  upon  money  which  could 
and  is  to  be  had  without  interest;  a  policy  which  had  to 
produce  a  contraction  of  the  currency  exceedingly  distress- 
ing to  debtors  and,  thereby,  multi-millionaires.  Is  it  pos- 
sible to  make  to  this  a  conclusive  reply? 

Whenever  the  people  rebelled  against  the  exactions  of 
the  moneyed  power  and  the  infamous  financial  system  with 
which  they  had  been  saddled,  the  priests  of  mammon,  the 
politicians,  and  the  publishers  of  a  subsidized  press  made 
hypocritical  professions  of  patriotism,  of  national  honor 
pledged  and  to  be  redeemed,  of  constitutional  limitations 
and  guarantees,  and  of  horror  at  the  contemplation  of  pa- 
ternal measures  by  the  government.  Or  they  set  up  new 
political  idols  for  the  people  to  worship  or  to  quarrel  about. 
They  inflamed  popular  passion  and  tickled  national  vanity, 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        113 

and  appealed  to  jingoism.  The  silver  question,  the  force 
bill,  the  labor  troubles,  and  the  bugbear  of  foreign  invasion 
were  such  idols  set  up  by  the  Baal-priests  in  the  temple  of 
mammon.  Thus  too,  Greenbackism,  Teetotalism,  Woman 
Suffrage,  and  the  single  tax  fancy  were  skillfully  diverted 
and  applied  to  hypnotize  the  people  so  susceptible  to  fads, 
whenever  during  a  lucid  interval  they  threatened  to  de- 
mand and  enforce  a  change.  Meanwhile  the  international 
conspiracy  was  organized  which  practically  forced  the 
United  States,  before  they  were  in  proper  condition,  into 
monometalism  and  to  issue  more  bonds  to  continue  the 
National  Bank  system. 

Excessive  taxation,  irrational  tariff  legislation,  the  con- 
traction of  the  currency  by  hoarding  immense  sums  of 
money  in  the  National  treasury  and  then  spending  them 
prodigally  and  corruptly,  and  the  silver  legislation  were 
the  means  to  this  end.  It  was  rather  an  easy  task.  Gen- 
eral prosperity  was  the  rule.  Trade  and  industry  flour- 
ished. We  had  to  replace  the  losses  of  the  war;  we  culti- 
vated the  richest  virgin  soil  and  raised  the  treasures  hidden 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth ;  thanks  to  the  protective  policy 
we  expanded  our  industries  and  supplied  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing population.  Millions  of  emigrants  brought  to  our 
shore  willing  hands  and  millions  in  coin.  Thus  we  were 
enabled  to  maintain  our  balance  with  Europe  and  to  build 
up  an  interstate  commerce  of  unheard-of  proportions. 
Not  once  did  we  propound  the  questions :  How  long  is  this 
prosperity  to  last?  Do  we  exhaust  the  resources  of  the 
country ;  do  we  squander  the  inheritance  of  coming  gener- 
ations for  the  benefit  of  International  Capitalism?  AVe 
continued  to  live  prodigally,  to  expand  our  credit  and  to 
pay  to  the  Shylocks  of  the  world  usurious  interest.  More 
than  once  we  were  reminded  of  our  folly.  The  crisis  of 
1873,  of  1881,  of  1893  and  of  1907  did  not  cure  us  of  finan- 
cial, economic  and  political  heresies  or  of  our  national 
maladies,  morbid  pride  and  contempt  of  others.  We  saw 
not  the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  We  continued  in  the 
delusion  that  we  were  exempt  from  the  laws  of  finance  and 
economy  which  control  the  national  life  of  the  rest  of  the 
civilized  world  and  kept  it  from  drifting  into  the  whirlpool 
of  Capitalism  and  Monopolism. 

We  failed  to  observe  the  sociological  phenomena  which 
indicate  the  disintegration  of  society  and  which,  to  the 


114  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

careful  observer,  were  and  are  plainly  discernible  on  our 
political  horizon.  It  never  occurred  to  us  that  our  immun- 
ity from  many  of  the  social  maladies  with  which  other 
nations  were,  and  are,  afflicted  was  due,  not  to  advantages 
of  climate  and  isolation,  or  to  superiority  in  intellect,  in 
morals,  or  in  physical  strength,  but  solely  to  our  unique 
position  commanding  such  natural  resources  which  made 
possible  the  rational  nourishment  of  the  body  politic  and 
which,  without  immediately  exciting  disorders,  permitted  a 
reckless  waste  of  healthy  tissue.  \Ve  paid  no  attention  to 
a  beneficial  law  of  nature  regarding  the  progress  of  the 
human  race  that  every  controversy  relating  to  its  welfare 
or  woe  must  go  forward  to  its  settlement  and  that  every 
change  in  the  social  life  of  nations  must  be  carried  to  its 
logical  conclusion.  In  the  life  of  nations  there  are  no 
half-way  stations,  no  places  of  rest,  it  is  either  steady  prog- 
ress towards  the  goal  of  happiness  or  retrogression,  decay 
and  death. 

SECTION    II 

National  Control  of  Mines  and  Farm  Staples.     Of  all 

the  nations  of  the  earth  the  American  people  appeared  to 
be  the  most  favored  by  Providence,  truly  the  chosen  people 
of  the  Lord. 

Shortly  before  we  were  to  enter  into  maturity,  into  the 
circle  of  the  industrial  nations  and  into  a  political  trans- 
formation, nature  had  provided  the  means  which  should 
have  enabled  us  to  pass  unscathed  through  all  of  these 
economic  and  social  evolutions,  to  escape  most  of  the  evils 
usually  flowing  in  the  wake  of  revolutions,  and  to  develop 
a  social  order  superior  to  that  of  any  civilized  people.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  the  IJnited  States  occupied 
a  unique  place  in  the  economic  order  of  the  world.  All 
the  conditions  existed  that  should  have  secured  to  them 
this  position. 

We  were  the  largest  producers  of  the  great  farm  staples. 
All  over  the  world  their  price  responded  to  our  harvests 
and  to  the  acreage  which  we  were  adding  to  the  productive 
area.  We  were  then  only  touching  the  outer  belt  of  the 
great  wheat  and  com  producing  territory  which  under 
careful  husbandry  would  have  secured  to  generations  the 
control  of  the  markets  of  the  world.  Of  cotton  we  had  a 
virtual  monopoly.     As  to  all  other  products  of  the  soil  and 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE       115 

of  animal  life,  and  in  minerals,  necessary  to  the  develop- 
ment of  higher  industries,  we  were  independent  of  the 
world,  and  our  exporting  power  was  equal  to  the  demands 
of  western  Europe  and  increasing  in  a  higher  rate  than 
the  increase  in  European  consumption. 

On  the  eve  of  the  economic  and  political  revolution  which 
relieved  us  from  the  incubi  of  free  trade  and  slavery, 
the  gold  discoveries  in  California  were  made.  They  were 
of  such  a  character  as  to  exert  a  decisive  influence  on  the 
money  markets  of  the  world.  Considering  our  unique  and 
advantageous  position  in  the  commerce  of  the  world,  the 
discovery  of  precious  metals  in  such  quantities  ought  to 
have  changed  our  financial  position  from  one  of  dependency 
to  that  of  absolute  independence.  The  treasures  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  properly  applied,  should  have  enabled  us  to 
scorn  the  moneyed  power  of  the  world  and  to  lay  it  pros- 
trate at  our  feet.  These  treasures  should  have  secured  to 
us,  directly  and  indirectly,  and  cheaply,  the  means  for  the 
conduct  of  the  war  and  the  capital  required  to  establish 
higher  industries.  They  should  have  attracted  to  this 
country,  though  it  was  then  passing  through  economic  and 
social  upheavals  of  unparalleled  force  and  extent,  the 
hoarded  capital  of  Europe  on  conditions  of  our  own  pre- 
scription. Profiting  from  the  experience  of  Europe,  our 
financial  and  economic  policy  should  have  been:  the  ac- 
quisition by  the  national  government  of  all  gold  and  silver 
mines  and  the  regulation  of  the  output;  the  regulation  of 
the  acreage  to  be  put  under  cultivation  by  a  proper  system 
of  restriction  in  the  opening  of  territories  to  settlement. 

Such  a  policy  would  long  ago  have  removed  the  center 
of  finance  from  London  to  New  York;  it  would  have  pre- 
vented the  rapid  exhaustion  of  our  natural  resources  and 
kept  the  price  of  farm  products  on  a  paying  basis,  that  of 
silver  near  the  price  of  gold  and  wages  at  the  American 
standard.  It  would  have  prevented  the  sudden  expansion 
of  the  rural  population  and  diverted  the  overflow  into  in- 
dustrial pursuits  and  thus  have  advanced  American  indus- 
tries; it  would  have  increased  the  urban  population  from 
American  stock  and  excluded  the  unskilled  pauper  labor  of 
Europe,  in  race  and  religion  hostile  to  Anglo-Saxon  civiliza- 
tion. It  could  not  exclude  the  farmer  and  artisan  of  na- 
tions standing  on  the  level  of  American  culture  and  who 
assisted  us  in  the  opening  of  the  storehouses  of  nature  and 


116  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

in  the  development  of  higher  industries.  It  would  have 
made  impossible  the  acquisition  of  colossal  fortunes,  land 
monopolies,  the  existence  of  railroad  and  silver  kings,  the 
usurious  exploitation  of  the  farmer  and  the  crowding  of 
labor.  It  would  have  made  the  money  issued  by  the  na- 
tional government  the  only  circulating  medium  and  pre- 
vented mischievous  contraction  and  expansion  for  the 
benefit  of  Capitalism.  AVithout  any  material  disturbance 
in  our  economic  conditions  we  might  have  continued,  like 
France,  the  Gold  standard  during  the  Civil  War.  The 
conditions  of  the  world's  commerce,  the  financial  interde- 
pendence of  all  civilized  nations,  and  the  abundance  of 
silver  will  in  the  nearest  future  enforce  monometalism 
throughout  the  world  independently  of  all  possible  changes 
in  the  social  order  of  the  civilized  nations. 

SECTION   III 

The  Functions  of  the  National  Government  as  to  Na- 
tional  Improvements.  To  the  pitiful  failures  of  the  Re- 
publican party  in  the  reconstruction,  financial  and  agrarian 
policy  must  be  added  another :  the  criminal  thoughtlessness 
and,  later  on,  corruptibility  in  all  its  measures  for  internal 
improvements. 

It  created  not  a  general  and  comprehensive  system  of 
national  improvements  benefiting  the  living  and  providing 
for  the  necessities  of  posterity.  Every  one  of  its  measures 
was  the  result  of  log-rolling  and  of  Parliamentarism,  that 
is  of  the  kind  of  statesmanship  which  looks  not  to  the  past 
and  anticipates  the  future,  but  solely  considers  temporary 
party  advantages  and  the  interests  of  classes.  The  annual 
consideration  by  Congress  of  the  "River  and  Harbor  Bill" 
exhibited  to  the  world  a  disgraceful  spectacle,  a  wrangling 
and  bargaining  to  secure  a  larger  part  of  the  corruption 
fund  to  further  corrupt  corruptible  constituencies.  Hun- 
dreds of  millions  have  been  wasted  and  thrown  into  the 
bottomless  pit  of  Parliamentarism. 

The  Republican  party  invested  our  economic  and  social 
order  with  the  great  railroad  corporations  and  Credit 
mohiliers  and  established  an  infamous  policy  of  land-grants 
through  which  the  very  life  blood  of  the  American  democ- 
racy was  transfused  into  the  system  of  Capitalism  to  stimu- 
late its  growth  into  plutocracy.  Adhering  to  the  laissez 
faire  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  applicable  only  to  a 


THE  FOUNDATION^  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE       117 

people  of  pastoral  life  and  pursuits,  the  Republican  party 
was  unmindful  of  its  parentage,  of  the  causes  of  its  organi- 
zation :  the  changed  condition  in  the  economic  and  social 
order  of  the  civilized  world,  and  the  necessity  of  the  speedy 
transformation  of  our  political  organism  into  one  in  har- 
mony with  the  complex  order  of  modern  civilization.  In- 
stead of  advancing  us  to  a  higher  social  order  than  that 
possessed  by  any  other  nation,  an  advancement  for  which 
all  our  conditions  were  propitious,  the  economic  policy  of 
the  Republican  party  acted  conversely  on  our  body  politic ; 
it  changed  these  conditions  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make 
the  transition  one  from  an  agricultural  to  an  almost  pro- 
letariat population. 

Instead  of  profiting  from  the  experience  of  Europe,  and 
making  the  undertaking  of  the  great  national  improve- 
ments a  national  matter,  the  party  adhered  to  an  economic 
policy  of  assisting  private  corporations  with  the  credit  and 
property  of  the  nation,  of  burdening  the  generality  of  the 
nation  with  moral  and  financial  responsibility,  while  the 
people  were  powerless  to  guard  against  the  jobbers'  greedi- 
ness or  to  avert  the  moral  and  economic  dangers  of  mis- 
management and  corruption  surely  to  follow  the  applica- 
tion of  a  defunct  policy  to  the  vigorous  growth  of  a 
youthful  and  energetic  nation.  Thus  the  Republican  party 
is  responsible  for  the  corruption  which  its  false  economic 
policy  has  difi'used  from  the  Capitol  into  every  branch  of 
public  life.  The  economic,  social  and  political  results  of 
this  policy  are  strongly  and  correctly  set  forth  in  an  edi- 
torial article  which  appeared  years  ago  in  the  daily  Neiv 
York  Sun,  the  most  able  and  outspoken  organ  of  Capi- 
talism, Romanism,  and  of  every  reactionary  interest  in  the 
country,  and  in  its  expressions  demonstrative  against  all 
popular  political  progress  and  strongly  defending  the  de- 
funct policy  of  non-intervention  by  the  Government  in  the 
economic  affairs  of  the  nation.  The  article  headed  "Rail- 
road Wreckage  in  the  West"  reads  as  follows; 

"Recent  reports  of  the  condition  of  some  of  the  largest 
of  our  Western  railroad  corporations,  present  the  most 
disastrous  and  discouraging  spectacle  in  our  commercial 
history.  The  wreckage  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Atchi- 
son, the  Union  Pacific,  and  other  vast  railroad  properties, 
is  almost  beyond  comprehension  in  its  enormity.     This  ruin 


lia  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

has  been  aeliievt'd  by  steady  gradations  at  a  time  when  the 
development  of  the  snrroundin^'  country  had  not  been  re- 
tarded, when  the  population  had  l)een  rapidly  increasing, 
and  when  every  condition  eondueive  to  i)rosperity  existed 
in  abundance.  '  It  was  not  caused  by  the  shrinkage  in  sil- 
ver, the  abandonment  of  mines,  or  the  money  panic.  These 
events  gave  it  emphasis,  and  precipitated  results  that  had 
long  been  inevitable. 

' '  Not  the  least  discouraging  aspect  of  the  whole  situation 
is  that  the  courts  have  resolved  in  almost  every  instance  to 
appoint  as  receivers  for  these  bankrupted  properties  the 
very  men  under  whose  management  their  misfortunes  had 
been  created !  The  men  who,  by  their  incapacity  or  dis- 
honesty, have  dragged  down  great  and  powerful  organiza- 
tions, seem  by  those  very  qualifications  to  have  commended 
themselves  to  the  courts.  They  have  been  made  the  re- 
ceivers. Their  personal  emoluments  are  greater  than  the 
salaries  they  had  before.  Their  control  is  more  absolute, 
and  they  perpetuate  with  insolence  and  defiance  the  vices 
that  disgraced  their  previous  administration. 

"Never  was  the  management  of  the  lines  affected  more 
cut-throat  and  depraved  than  it  is  at  the  present  moment. 
Never  was  the  competition  more  reckless  and  dishonest,  or 
more  strongly  marked  by  the  personal  proclivities  of  the 
management.  The  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  is 
set  at  naught  and  openly  defied.  In  fact,  it  finds  itself  re- 
duced to  a  single  remedy,  that  of  impeaching  the  Judges 
under  whose  authority  the  work  of  disintegration  and  ruin 
is  now  carried  on!" 

Truly,  a  satiric  tragedy  on  the  policy  of  non-interven- 
tion, of  the  restriction  of  the  national  government's  powers 
and  responsibilities  in  the  age  of  universal  progress,  of 
science,  and  of  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  individual 
on  the  nation  as  a  whole.  The  Republican  party  failed 
in  its  mission.  The  abolition  of  slavery,  considered  from 
a  purely  humane  standpoint,  was  imposed  on  the  party  by 
the  imperative  condition  of  the  civilization  of  the  age. 
This  humane  agency  was  only  an  ideal  motive  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Republican  party ;  its  political  mission  was 
the  removal  of  the  destructive  and  restrictive  economic 
forces  flowing  out  of  the  institution  of  chattel  slavery  that 
retarded  or  prevented  the  crj^stallization  of  the  nation  and 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE        119 

its  economic  progress  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  its  evolution 
from  tlie  policy  of  laissez  faire  into  that  of  corporate  re- 
sponsibility. Therefore,  the  very  birth  of  the  Republican 
party  was  a  revolutionary  act  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
country  and  of  the  necessity,  instinctively  perceived  by  the 
democracy  of  the  North,  of  such  a  reconstruction  of  society 
and  of  such  a  readjustment  of  the  functions  of  govern- 
ments as  to  enable  the  people  to  reach  in  the  transition 
from  pastoral  and  provincial  life,  in  an  orderly  manner  a 
higher  social  order,  that  state  of  society  which  under  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  intussusception,  in  its  application 
to  races  and  nations,  and  in  the  age  of  scientific  research, 
will  be  the  product  of  human  thought,  of  the  application 
of  science  to  every  day  life,  and  of  the  collective  develop- 
ment in  the  humane. 

The  founders  of  the  Republican  party  were  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit  of  the  German  immigration  of  1848-49  and 
their  advanced  economic  ideas,  and  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  intellectual  elements  in  Puritanism.  Having  passed 
the  theological  period  in  intellectual  advancement,  these 
elements  drifted  into  rationalism  but  unfortunately  they 
preserved  that  distaste  for  innovation  which  belongs  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  many  of  them  preserved  a  distrust  of 
human  nature  derived  from  their  creed  and  were  atfected 
by  moral  cowardice  transmitted  from  the  glacial  period 
of  Puritanism.  These  defects  and  the  unfortunate 
wrangle  between  the  German  element  and  Puritanical 
provincialism  over  unimportant  matters  of  social  habits 
and  the  amenities  of  life,  subject  only  to  the  leveling  influ- 
ences of  time  and  the  gently  flowing  stream  of  culture, 
were  the  causes  of  the  party's  switching  off  the  main  road 
of  religious,  economic  and  social  progress  to  the  many  side- 
tracks of  economic  and  social  heresies  on  which  it  ran  to 
the  great  smash-up  in  1912.  These  were  the  causes,  that 
gradually  turned  the  intellectual  part  of  the  nation,  the 
learned  professions  away  from  the  Republican  party, 
deprived  them  of  the  leadership,  and  led  to  the  party's 
violation  and  perversion  by  Capitalism,  intolerance  and 
deraagogism. 

The  organization  of  the  Republican  party  sprung  from 
the  conviction  of  the  intelligent  of  the  nation,  that  the  Whig 
party  was  a  relic  of  the  society  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
of  the  aristocratic  agencies  which  organized  the  national 


120  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

govenmieiit ;  that  the  Democrutic  party  was  the  creature  of 
the  traiiseeialeiitnl  polities  of  that  age  ou  whicli  our  Cou- 
stitution  is  based  and  from  wliieh  tlie  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence tiowed,  lueaiiiug  mudi  and,  in  tlie  age  of  collec- 
tive progress,  elf eeting  nothing ;  that  the  Democratic  party, 
when  slavery  had  squeezed  out  of  it  trauscendeutalisni,  was 
merely  a  shell  with  nothing  in  it;  its  cracked  and  dented 
surface  covered  with  an  ancient  French  varnish,  which  in 
our  times  has  been  retouched  with  the  Papal  colors  with 
the  carefully  preserving  the  faded  picture  of  the  God- 
dess of  l^iberty  and  of  the  Phrygian  cap,  the  symbols  of 
hollow  skepticism,  Latin  effervescence,  and  sanscuUotism. 
As  a  civilizing  factor  in  the  life  of  the  American  nation 
or  as  an  expression  and  receptacle  of  American  democracy 
we  may  as  well  dismiss  the  Democratic  party  from  further 
consideration.  It  needed  not  the  demonstration  of  its  im- 
becility, corruption,  and  subserviency  to  trusts  and  cor- 
porations and  to  international  Capitalism  during  the  short 
period  of  its  renewed  power  in  1884  and  1892  to  convince 
the  student  of  history  and  of  sociology  and  the  common 
sense  of  the  American  people  that  to  the  politicians  of  the 
Democratic  party  may  justly  be  applied  Napoleon's  judg- 
ment of  the  Bourbons  after  the  Restoration:  "They  have 
forgotten  nothing  and  learned  nothing."  Its  present 
tenure  will  end  as  disastrously  though  its  present  leader 
is  an  honest  and  learned  man  but  the  product  of  narrow 
Presbyterianism  and  Southern  prejudices.  The  first  gun 
fired  at  Fort  Sumter  was  the  death-knell  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party. 

SECTION  rv 

Tariff  Legislation,  the  Land  Question,  and  Commerce. 

Of  organic  laws  passed  by  the  Republican  party  only  two 
originated  in  a  true  conception  of  its  economic  and  social 
mission.  They  were  those  relating  to  the  acquisition  of 
homesteads  and  to  the  development  of  higher  industries. 

The  homestead  law  failed  in  its  purpose  of  maintaining 
an  equitable  division  of  the  land  and  could  not  exert  the 
beneficent  influences  on  the  nation's  economic  condition 
expected  of  it  because  it  was  tainted  in  principle,  neutral- 
ized by  the  land  grants  to  corporations  and  the  studiously 
corrupt  administration  of  the  land  offices  in  the  interest  of 
Capitalism. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  A^IERICAN  EMPIRE        121 

While  the  tariff  legislation  effected  all  expected  of  it  in 
our  transformation  into  an  industrial  nation,  as  a  moral 
and  political  factor  to  maintain  the  economic  independence 
of  the  masses  and  thus  support  and  advance  democracy,  it 
failed  entirely  of  its  purpose.  In  its  tariff-legislation,  the 
Republican  party  was  Janus-faced.  Professing  a  policy 
for  the  benefit  of  the  masses,  of  the  generality  of  the  na- 
tion, the  party  prostituted  the  powers  of  the  government 
for  half  a  century  for  the  benefit  of  a  class,  or  rather,  to 
the  creation  of  classes  and  class  rule.  While  the  principle 
of  protection  was  correct  in  its  application  to  the  process 
of  material  crystallization  of  American  society,  in  its  moral 
adaptation,  as  far  as  our  economic  conditions  were  con- 
cerned, it  was  unscientific,  arbitrary,  corrupt,  and,  there- 
fore, inimical  to  democracy.  It  failed  to  preserve  the  na- 
tional resources  and  the  social  equality  of  the  people,  the 
very  conditions  on  which  the  stability  of  the  Republic  de- 
pends. 

The  Republican  party  also  failed  in  its  duty  toward  the 
commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  nation  in  an- 
other direction.  Through  cowardice,  following  in  the  wake 
of  its  false  financial  and  land  policy,  it  suffered  England 
to  destroy  American  shipping  and  American  commerce, 
and,  through  corruption,  failed  during  and  after  the  Civil 
War  to  apply  the  proper  remedial  measures.  The  prohi- 
bition of  all  exports  and  imports  in  English  vessels,  and 
the  declaration  of  a  policy  of  reprisal  would  have  taught 
the  moneyed  power  of  England  and  her  middle  class  that 
a  selfish  policy,  unmindful  of  all  laws  alike  of  neutrality 
and  humanity,  would  be  fraught  with  danger.  England, 
then,  was  not  in  a  condition  to  risk  a  naval  war  and  to 
endanger  her  lines  of  communication  with  her  colonies. 
Instead  of  having  the  seas  lighted  by  our  burning  ships, 
we  might  with  beneficial  results  to  our  national  welfare 
have  used  them  to  destroy  English  commerce  and  imperil 
the  British  colonial  empire. 

The  corruption  of  Congress  and  the  mediocrity  and  sub- 
serviency to  International  Capitalism  of  succeeding  ad- 
ministrations prevented  the  application  of  the  only  measure 
which  would  have  reestablished  our  supremacy  in  the  ocean 
carrying  trade  when  ninety  per  cent,  of  our  foreign  com- 
merce was  carried  in  our  own  vessels.  The  remedial  meas- 
ure should  have  been  the  laying  of  an  additional  duty  on 


122  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

all  inijiorts  in  foreign  sliij^s.  The  first  navigation  law 
passed  in  1789  by  the  founders  of  the  Republic  was  in  the 
line  of  such  a  policy.  It  had  built  up  the  American  navy; 
it  had  preserved  our  independence  in  the  war  of  1812 
when  it  compelled  England  reluctantly  to  acknowledge  our 
naval  supremacy. 

No  maritime  nation  can  maintain  commercial  inde- 
pendence or  political  autonomy,  no  industrial  nation  can 
lastingly  fully  employ  its  labor  and  maintain  its  industrial 
independence  and  national  prosperity  without  the  capacity 
to  build  ships  and  carry  the  products  of  industry  in  its 
own  bottoms  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  but  a  question 
of  time  when  our  industries  must  seek  markets  in  all  parts 
of  the  world  to  enable  us  to  keep  up  our  balance  with 
foreign  nations,  inasmuch  as  our  ability  largely  to  export 
the  great  staple  products  of  the  farm  will  soon  have  ceased. 
It  should  have  been  the  province  of  the  Republican  party 
to  pierce  into  future  contingencies  and  to  provide  by  legis- 
lation for  the  one,  now  fast  approaching.  Ignoring  alike 
the  facts  and  teachings  of  history,  we  failed  to  provide  the 
education  and  means  necessary  successfully  to  enter  into 
the  world's  commerce,  to  insure  the  profitable  employment 
of  an  ever  increasing  industrial  population,  and  to  guard 
against  the  demoralizing  effects  of  over-production  and  of 
the  lowering  of  the  American  standard  of  wages  on  the 
life  of  the  American  democracy. 

SECTION    V 

National  Education  and  Pro-Roman  Party  Leaders. 
Springing  from  the  intellect  of  the  people,  as  a  product 
of  Puritanism  and  of  the  ideal  endeavors  of  German  revo- 
lutionists, the  Republican  party's  first  and  most  imperative 
duty  after  the  war  was  clearly  defined.  The  nation  was 
then  in  the  process  of  formation.  The  ethical  culture  of 
the  growing  generation  that,  under  new  economic  and  so- 
cial conditions,  was  to  be  the  custodian  of  the  Republic, 
was  of  first  importance.  It  should  have  been  the  ground- 
work of  all  political  legislation. 

It  is  now  universally  recognized  as  a  political  truth,  that 
the  future  of  a  nation  depends  on  the  degree  of  ethical  cul- 
ture enjoyed  by  the  generality  of  the  nation.  The  recog- 
nition of  this  truth,  though  to  them  partly  veiled  by  super- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE       123 

naturalism,  caused  the  Pilgrim  fathers  to  establish  common 
schools.  As  the  political  heir  to  Puritanism,  the  Republi- 
can party  ought  to  have  enlarged  and  modernized  the  trust 
transmitted  to  it.  Therefore,  the  nationalization  of  uni- 
versity and  common  school  education,  with  its  basis  in  the 
ethics  of  the  Teuton  race  and  of  the  Reformation,  ought  to 
have  been  the  most  sacred  duty  of  the  Republican  party — 
a  duty  it  sadly  neglected.  Wandering  in  the  wilderness  of 
materialism,  of  political  intrigue,  and  of  corruption,  the 
party  leaders  were  unable  to  follow  the  great  moral  light 
the  Pilgrims  had  set  for  the  guidance  of  posterity. 

It  is  true,  that  the  party,  in  its  youth  and,  while  yet 
untainted  with  the  vices  of  Parliamentarism,  Romanism 
and  Capitalism,  endeavored  to  fulfill  its  cultural  mission; 
it  set  aside  millions  of  acres  of  land  for  educational  pur- 
poses, but  entrusted  the  endowments  to  irresponsible,  di- 
vergent, and  often  hostile  agencies. 

A  wonderful  succession  of  epoch-making  events  made  an 
empire  out  of  a  geographical  expression,  and  a  nation  out 
of  a  concourse  of  individuals.  To  be  of  lasting  duration, 
the  empire  needed  a  binding  element,  the  nation  an  im- 
perishable soul.  The  uniform  intellectual  training  of  our 
youth  should  have  provided  the  one,  ethical  culture  free 
from  theology,  but  under  the  precepts  of  the  Reformation 
and  within  the  traditions  of  our  race,  the  other.  The  Re- 
publican party  failed  in  this  and,  with  it,  it  failed  in  the 
grand  total  of  its  lofty  mission  to  guide  the  American 
people  in  their  transformation  into  a  nation  and  to  pro- 
vide the  foundation  for  a  new  social  order  which  under 
the  changed  economic  and  political  conditions  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  the  age  of  collective  progress,  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  sustain  democracy  that  humanity  may  elevate  it 
with  a  divine  purpose.  The  Republican  party,  in  its  great 
mission  as  a  guiding,  uplifting  influence,  failed  in  that  it 
did  not  continually  set  before  our  people  and  the  civilized 
world  the  high  ideals  of  democracy,  and  take  the  lead  in 
great  agitations  for  its  advancement,  for  freedom  and 
humanity. 

It  failed  to  retain  as  national  property  the  treasures 
hidden  in  the  earth;  it  failed  in  an  equitable  division  of 
the  land ;  it  failed  in  its  protective  policy  as  a  moral  factor 
in  the  life  of  our  democracy ;  it  failed  to  provide  a  national 


124  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

system  of  law  exemplifying  the  principles  of  democracy, 
embodying  the  progress  in  thought  and  science,  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  changi'S  in  our  economic  and  social  condi- 
tions; it  failed  to  advance  the  nation  to  a  higher  level,  intel- 
lectually, morally,  and  in  the  humane. 

When  Capitalism  had  stifled  the  passions  of  ambition  and 
of  humanity  within  the  party,  when  greed  and  avarice  had 
banished  from  its  councils  the  cultured  and  the  idealists, 
when  corruption  and  mediocrity  had  outraged  the  moral 
and  common  sense  of  the  farmer  and  artisan,  the  pygmean 
race  of  party  leaders  appealed  to  Romanism  and  to  the 
Celt;  they  prostrated  themselves  before  the  Papal  throne 
and  were  ready  to  sacrifice  the  nation's  birthright  for  the 
spoils  of  office.  They  gave  distinct  and  slavish  expression 
of  their  apostasy  from  the  faith  and  principles  of  the  Pil- 
grim fathers  when  they  accepted  a  Papal  delegate  and  en- 
tered into  the  Spanish  pro-Roman  war,  when  they  placed 
a  Romanist  at  the  head  of  the  party's  national  committee 
and  of  the  National  Supreme  Court,  and  challenged  the 
traditions  of  centuries  and  the  moral  nature  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon.  Though  only  partly  conscious  as  to  purport,  the 
American  people,  in  1912,  defeated  the  party  led  by 
mountebanks  and  jobbers,  who  traded  on  the  memory  of 
Lincoln,  Sumner  and  Wilson.  The  Republican  victories  in 
1893  to  1896  were  not  a  sign  of  regained  confidence  but 
were  the  outcome  of  circumstances  over  which  the  people 
had  no  control.  At  the  time,  as  in  1912,  no  other  party 
commanded  the  confidence  of  the  people  or  presented  a 
programme  evolved  from  the  ethics  of  the  race,  providing 
for  the  needs  of  the  times  and  for  future  contingencies  and, 
therefore,  promising  an  orderly  advance  in  the  structure 
of  society. 

The  great  democracy  of  the  North  also  cherished  the  hope 
that  the  Republican  party  might  still  be  redeemed  through 
the  ascendency  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  forces  which, 
though  in  sorrow  and  despair,  had  steadily  adhered  to  it. 
The  pygmean  leaders  entirely  misunderstood  the  causes  of 
the  unexpected  victories.  Utterly  surprised,  well  aware  of 
their  disregard  of  public  welfare,  of  their  intellectual  in- 
significance, and  of  the  incongruity  between  themselves  and 
the  ideals  of  the  nation,  they  styled  the  unexpected  events 
"Acts  of  Providence"  by  which  their  calculations  were 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  AJVIERICAN  EMPIRE        125 

greatly  upset.  Solely  moved  by  greed  and  avarice,  and  in 
their  blind  subserviency  to  International  Capitalism  and 
Rome,  they  had  already  trimmed  their  sails  to  steer  their 
course  in  the  wake  of  the  Democratic  party  which  then 
possessed  the  confidence  of  the  moneyed  powers,  and  by 
its  composition  and  freedom  from  all  progressive  elements 
promised  to  become  the  real  harbinger  of  plutocratic  ideas. 
These  pygmean  statesmen  thought  the  American  experi- 
ment of  popular  government  a  gigantic  failure,  and  the 
American  people  in  the  depth  of  moral  debasement. 
Therefore,  they  were  unable  to  discern  the  true  causes  of 
a  political  change  which  was  a  last  protest  against  Capi- 
talism and  the  reactionary  forces  generally  trjdng  to  force 
upon  the  nation  the  yoke  of  plutocracy  and  of  Romanism. 

While  these  petty  politicians  without  statesmanship, 
without  breadth  of  intellect,  without  character  and  with- 
out the  democratic  instinct  of  the  American  people, 
were  encircling  their  brows  with  wisps  of  straw  and, 
in  their  unconscious  self-deception,  imagined  themselves 
masters  of  the  people,  they  strained  the  endurance  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  love  of  law  and  order  to  the  limit,  and  the  break 
will  surely  come  should  they  again  impose  upon  either 
party  their  leadership,  their  passions,  selfishness,  and  cor- 
ruption, to  make  the  public  treasury  their  silent  partner 
and  the  public  their  prey.  The  flood  gates  of  the  people's 
wrath  will  be  raised,  should  these  Lilliputians  attempt  to 
stem  the  onward  march  of  the  American  democracy  and  to 
deliver  it  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits  and  Shylocks. 

With  these  politicians  the  most  sacred  patriotic  duties 
and  the  deepest  affections  go  for  nothing  over  against  politi- 
cal combinations  and  the  demands  of  Capitalism  and  Rome. 
They  are  intent  only  on  furthering  their  private  interests 
and  the  infernal  conspiracy  to  rob  the  American  people 
of  religious,  economic,  and  political  liberty.  They  are 
damming  up  the  waters  which  at  no  distant  date  may  burst 
the  confines  and  sweeping  the  fabric  of  society  from  its 
very  foundation  will  leave  in  their  wake  ruin  and  chaos. 
They  and  their  masters.  Popery  and  the  trusts  and  cor- 
porations, the  avaricious  and  the  cunning,  are  the  real 
anarchical  forces  that  slowly  but  steadily  and  surely  de- 
stroy the  safeguards  of  society  in  a  democracy,  the  moral 
life  of  the  people,  their  trust  in  justice  and  equity,  and 
their  expectations. 


126  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

The  sentiment  of  honest  pride  which  springs  in  the 
luiman  breast  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  patriotism  does  not 
exist  in  the  conscience  of  our  party  leaders,  and  their 
whole  moral  personality  is  impervious  to  contempt,  public 
opinion,  and  the  wail  of  a  suffering  people. 


PART  IV 

THE  ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN 
SOCIETY 

CHAPTER  I 

Defects  in  the  Organic  Structure  of  the  Republic 

section  i 

The  Terrible  Progress  of  Demoralization.  Under  a 
representative  form  of  government  the  National  Assembly 
is  the  touchstone  of  the  nation's  intellectual,  moral,  and 
political  worth.  On  a  great  occasion  Daniel  Webster  said : 
"It  is  fortunate  that  there  is  a  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
a  body  not  yet  moved  from  its  propriety,  nor  lost  to  a  just 
sense  of  its  own  dignity  and  its  own  high  responsibilities, 
and  a  body  to  which  the  country  looks  with  confidence  for 
wise,  moderate,  patriotic  and  healing  counsels." 

To-day  the  Senate  is  an  incubus  and  an  obstruction ;  it 
is  charged  with  bribery  and  corruption ;  it  is  composed  of 
ordinary  wire  pullers,  creatures  of  monopolies,  of  pluto- 
crats, who  bought  their  elevation  to  further  their  own  in- 
terests and  those  of  their  class.  It  is  without  propriety  and 
dignity,  and  as  the  slave  of  Popery  and  Capitalism  has 
lost  the  sense  of  high  responsibilities  as  the  guardian  of 
democracy  against  the  anarchical  forces  flowing  from 
demagogism  and  mammonism.  It  has  become  the  naked 
and  undisguised  instrument  of  trusts  and  syndicates.  Its 
tyrannical  power  has  of  late  been  used  to  further  the  most 
shameful  and  most  selfish  conspiracies  to  enrich  a  few 
capitalists  at  the  expense  of  the  American  people.  A  body 
with  such  tyrannical  power  and  disregard  of  public  wel- 
fare is  far  more  dangerous  than  the  ridiculous  and  irritat- 
ing anachronism  of  the  English  House  of  Lords.  Whether 
the  new  amendment  to  the  Constitution  will  advance  the 
moral  and  int-ellectual  composition  of  that  body  is  doubtful. 

127 


128  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

The  Senate  should  be  abolished.  It  is  a  superfluous  and 
therefore  an  always  reactionary  body. 

The  House  of  Representatives  is  a  mob  of  vulvar  and 
greedy  office  hunters  and  wire  pullers,  a  confused,  disor- 
derly throng  of  guerilla  bands  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  lobby  in  predatory  warfare  against  the  public.  While 
the  country  was  in  the  throes  of  a  financial  and  industrial 
crisis,  while  millions  of  willing  hands  were  idle,  and  starva- 
tion and  despair  were  invading  the  houses  of  the  toilers, 
Congress  wasted  time  and  the  substance  of  the  people  in 
childish  gibberish,  or  purposely  prolonged  the  crisis  of 
1893  and  with  it  the  people's  misery  that  Senators  and 
Congressmen  might  speculate  in  commodities  affected  by 
the  provisions  of  a  new  tariff,  and  the  trusts  manipulate 
the  Stock  Exchanges  of  the  World. 

When  political  rogues  fall  out,  the  people  usually  hear 
the  truth.  Of  our  National  Legislature  Mr.  Cleveland  said 
in  his  second  inaugural  address:  "While  Congress  legis- 
lates in  ignorance,  prejudice  and  passion  or  in  behalf  of 
selfish  interests,  while  the  sense  of  duty  in  our  representa- 
tives is  utterly  degraded,  the  world  receives  the  impression 
that  the  American  people  are  either  deficient  in  courage 
and  wisdom,  or  in  reverence  for  pure  and  elevated  princi- 
ples ;  that  the  American  democracy  is  either  void  of  broad 
and  disinterested  patriotism  or  a  counterfeit  appearance 
of  government  by  the  people. ' '  In  the  face  of  the  ^Nlulhall 
and  Lamar  disclosures  who  will  say  that  INIr.  Cleveland's 
remarks  do  not  fit  our  times?  The  party  and  the  platform 
that  our  politicians  select  is  but  a  means  to  the  attainment 
of  a  position  which  will  enable  them  to  improve  their  busi- 
ness connections  and  to  amass  riches.  They  only  regard 
politics  as  a  lucrative  career,  in  which  the  best  chances  are 
reserved  to  those  who  sell  themselves  with  the  most 
cynicism. 

It  is  true  that  the  people  of  the  North  failed  in  their 
duty.  In  the  chase  offer  the  almighty  dollar  and  in  the 
complete  absorption  in  materialism  and  pleasure  they  lost 
the  moral  sense  necessary  to  distinguish  betM'een  right  and 
wrong  and  the  faculty  to  divest  prosperity  and  riches  of 
their  luster,  to  scrutinize  the  agencies  through  which  they 
were  attained  and  acquired.  In  business  and  politics  the 
only  standard  before  which  the  American  people  bowed  in 
humble    reverence    was    success.     The    whole    nation    was 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       129 

morally  prostrated  by  a  feverish  desire  to  gain  riches  and 
to  squander  them  in  riotous  living.  In  this  paroxysm  of 
worldliness,  in  the  total  absorption  in  the  outward  things, 
and  intoxicated  with  success,  the  nation  lost  its  moral 
equilibrium  and  could  not  perceive  that  the  old  laws  and 
customs  were  no  longer  suited  to  the  necessities  of  the  day, 
and  must  be  abrogated. 

The  system  of  morality  underlying  the  American  democ- 
racy was  that  delivered  in  the  gospel,  or  rather  moral  the- 
ology. When,  therefore,  in  the  age  of  science,  faith  in  the 
supernatural  weakened,  and  the  churches  failed  to  impose 
larger  and  higher  conditions  on  the  conduct  of  the  nation, 
than  the  religion  of  old  permitted,  and  to  supplant  it  with 
a  more  vitalized  and  liberating  faith  in  the  spiritual  rela- 
tions with  God  and  fellowmen  and  adapted  to  modern 
thought,  our  system  of  morality  became  a  soulless  code  of 
external  obligation  and  conformity,  fixed  and  stationary, 
its  existence  prolonged  only  by  artificial  and  external 
means,  instead  of  by  process  of  inner  and  organic  growth. 
In  fact,  in  the  age  of  intellectual  progress  and  scientific 
research,  the  American  democracy  remained  in  a  rudimen- 
tary stage  of  moral  and  spiritual  development.  Wherever 
there  is  no  progress,  there  is  stagnation  and  decay.  While 
thus  the  very  foundation  of  American  democracy,  public 
morality,  gradually  failed  in  its  functions,  the  superstruc- 
ture was  not  adapted  to  modern  life  and  to  the  expansion 
of  society. 

SECTION   II 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Supreme 
Court.  It  may  be  justly  said  that  the  American  people 
were  more  sinned  against  than  sinning.  They  had  been 
taught  that  our  order  of  government  was  infallible,  the 
perfection  of  human  thought,  and  that  the  National  Con- 
stitution is  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  mankind  to  the 
world's  end. 

The  fact  is,  the  progress  of  the  American  democracy  has 
been  stopped  or  inverted  by  constitutional  provisos  based 
on  conditions  entirely  outlived  and  superseded  by  new 
conditions  in  the  economic  and  social  life  of  the  nation. 
It  is  undoubtedly  true,  and  only  fools  will  gainsay  that 
our  Constitution  contains  eternal  truths,  that  it  is  the  em- 
bodiment  of   Greek   thought  and   closely   adheres  to   the 


130  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"Articles  of  the  Union  of  Utrecht"  of  1579.  But  neither 
the  Greek  philosophers,  whose  democracies  were  reared  on 
slavery,  nor  the  liberty  loving  defenders  of  Protestantism 
in  the  Netherlands,  whose  political  institutions  the  Pil- 
grims and  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  so  closely  copied,  or 
these,  could  have  provided  for  the  exigencies  of  generations 
under  social  conditions  of  which,  before  the  age  of  science, 
the  most  profound  thinkers  could  have  no  thought.  While 
the  basic  principles  of  the  Constitution  represent  the  wis- 
dom and  experience  of  ages,  the  mode  of  application  could 
not  be  in  advance  of  the  times  and  of  the  conception  of 
man  and  things  held  by  the  framers  of  the  instrument. 
AMien  the  conditions  of  national  life  overlap  the  province 
of  a  constitution,  the  latter  is  taken  out  of  the  ordinary 
relations  of  the  nation  and  is  enclosed  in  a  sphere  by  itself. 
In  other  words,  it  becomes  a  dead  weight  in  the  body  .po- 
litic. This  is  our  case.  Our  constitution  cannot  be  modi- 
fied except  through  such  processes  as  itself  ordains  which, 
in  ordinary  times,  practically  exclude  the  initiative  by  the 
people  in  its  revision. 

The  founders  of  the  Union,  when  they  drafted  the  Con- 
stitution, could  not  foresee  the  extension  of  the  Republic 
from  ocean  to  ocean.  Neither  could  they  discern  the  di- 
versity of  interests  which  were  to  arise  between  sections  of 
the  Union  through  a  change  in  social  life,  and  in  the  rela- 
tions of  the  civilized  nations,  a  change  brought  about  by 
economic  advances  which  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury were  entirely  beyond  the  conception  of  the  wisest  of 
men  and  for  which  the  future  may  reserve  a  momentous 
role  in  the  Federal  government.  The  American  democracy 
in  its  onward  march  might  have  avoided  many  pitfalls  and 
advanced  more  rapidly  without  a  written  constitution. 
"We  might  then  have  lived  more  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  people  would  have 
evolved  therefrom  a  succession  of  laws  and  forms  of  gov- 
ernment in  keeping  with  the  times  and  beneficial  to  the 
progress  of  democracy. 

When  our  Constitution  was  adopted  England  had  already 
learned  by  experience  that  all  political  questions  sub- 
mitted to  Courts  will  be  decided  in  a  partisan  sense  or  in 
the  interest  of  the  class  or  party  to  which  the  judges,  or  a 
majority  thereof,  owe  their  elevation.  With  this  experi- 
fnce  in  mind,  the  aristocratic  elements  and  class  interests 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       131 

which  influenced  the  organization  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment imposed  on  the  American  people  an  abnormal  and 
singular  condition,  enti-usting  the  delimination  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  interpretation  of  its  provisions  to  the 
whims,  passions,  and  possibly  to  the  corruption  of  a  small 
body  of  men  entirely  removed  from  the  people  and  alto- 
gether independent  thereof.  Theoretically  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  is  made  independent  of  poli- 
tics. In  practice  it  is  composed  of  partisans,  and  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  classes,  of  particularistic  and  moneyed 
interests.  Its  members  are  not  elected  by  the  people,  are 
not  subjected  to  their  discipline,  but  are  only  amenable  to 
an  irresponsible  and  perpetual  body,  the  U.  S.  Senate, 
which  of  all  representative  bodies  of  the  world  has  been 
the  furthest  removed  from  all  progressive,  moral,  and  pop- 
ular influences.  Thus,  at  the  bidding  of  Capitalism, 
Komanism  and  Bourbonism,  the  sacred  roll  has  been  perfo- 
rated, bended  and  twisted  into  all  shapes  by  these  Judges; 
they  have  jumped  through  the  vellum  with  the  agility 
with  which  circus  riders  jump  through  the  paper-hoop. 
Years  ago  the  leaders  of  a  strike  in  China  were  strangled 
by  order  of  the  Emperor.  Our  Judges  attempted  to 
strangle  labor  and  social  progress  by  an  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution.  A  French  general  and  statesman  said 
of  the  Government  of  Russia :  "  It  is  an  Asiatic  despotism 
moderated  by  assassination."  Jefferson  accepted  the 
Constitution  as  a  necessary  evil,  tempered  by  newspapers. 
He  clearly  foresaw  that,  with  the  spirit  of  democracy  de- 
clining, the  Constitution  could  and  would  be  used  to  stifle 
liberty  by  process  of  law.  He  could  not  foresee  that  news- 
papers were  to  become  the  mouthpieces  of  every  interest 
hostile  to  democracy. 

The  notion  that  the  American  masses  dearly  love  the 
Constitution  per  se  is  largely  traditional.  The  expressions 
of  excessive  devotion  to  it  were  always  more  or  less  the 
exclusive  province  and  property  of  the  Fourth-of-July  ora- 
tors ;  of  late  it  appears  that  the  sacred  roll  has  passed  ' '  into 
the  keeping  of  the  Pope,  of  his  Italian-American  Deputy,  of 
the  Irish-Roman-American  hierarchy,  and  of  the  class  of 
patriots  who  profit  by  the  opportunities  which  certain  of 
its  provisions  offer  for  the  despoilment  of  the  people  and  for 
Jesuitism  creepingly  to  pass  the  portals  of  liberty  that  it 
may  supplant  our  Christian  civilization  with  Popery. 


132  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

III  point  of  fact,  tlio  day  of  sentiment  is  nearly  over  and 
no  tine  drawn  analysis  of  the  rights  of  man  and  of  constitu- 
tional restrictions  will  serve  the  present  and  future  needs 
of  the  American  jM'ople.  The  country  will  soon  be  in  a 
condition  which  must  push  forward  to  its  solution  the  ques- 
tion, whether  the  whole  machinery  of  legislation  shall  be 
blocked  and  the  progress  of  the  nation  shall  he  stopped  by 
an  organic  law  enacted  for  the  government  of  an  agri- 
cultural peo})le  of  four  millions  before  the  possibilities  of 
democracy  were  even  thought  of,  when  suffrage  depended 
on  property  qualifications,  when  the  masses  had  no  voice  in 
the  government,  and  their  political  emancipation  appeared 
Utopian. 

In  a  democracy,  constitutions  and  law-s  are  social  eon- 
tracts  representing  the  articles  of  partnership  embracing 
the  whole  people  who  are  the  real  undertakers  in  common 
of  whatever  the  State  assumes  the  care  and  cost  of.  There- 
fore, whenever  the  people  desire  to  change  the  conditions 
of  partnership,  they  may  do  so,  or  they  may  so  interpret 
them  as  it  seems  best  for  the  common  weal.  During  the 
nation's  progression  to  the  comple.x  condition  called  the 
ci\ilisation  of  the  twentieth  century,  we  were  content 
to  live  under  an  organic  law  drafted  by  mortals  to  whom 
the  future  was  veiled  and  as  such  could  not  provide  the 
safeguards  to  prevent  the  invasion  by  avarice  and  cunning 
of  an  instrument  based  on  transcendental  politics  which, 
in  the  Jeffersonian  age,  had  arisen  spontaneously. 

The  further  we  are  forced  by  economic  changes  in  the 
condition  of  life  to  depart  from  Jeffersonian  democracy  and 
the  more  we  lose  the  substance  of  liberty,  the  more  we  hear 
about  the  sacredness  of  the  Constitution.  Some  of  these 
worshipers  are  old  disgruntled  fellows  and  withal  harmless 
because  in  their  dotage.  The  fixed  habits  of  thought  w'hich 
they  acquired  in  parish  politics  or  in  the  menial  service 
of  slavocracy  have  dwarfed  their  intellect.  Others  again 
are  of  the  hypocritical  sort  with  more  of  the  knave  than 
the  fool  in  their  mental  and  moral  composition.  They  are 
the  agents  of  the  reactionary  powers,  the  tools  of  the 
enemies  of  democracy,  and  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  Of 
course  they  affiliate  with  the  Jesuits.  Their  ostentatious 
profession  of  devotion  to  the  Constitution  serves  as  the 
bandit's  cloak  to  hide  the  dagger  with  which  these  rene- 
gades or  disguised  Romanists  attempt  to  stab  American 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       133 

liberty  to  death.  To  divert  the  public  mind  from  the  ag- 
gressions of  Romanism  and  Capitalism,  the  high  priests  of 
mammon  set  up  the  parchment  rolls  of  the  Constitution  for 
the  adoration  of  the  thoughtless  multitude  that  they  may 
the  better,  like  the  high  priests  of  Judea,  deliver  their  people 
into  the  bondage  of  Rome  and  of  the  money  changers  of 
the  world. 

Bacon  said  of  wars,  that  they  go  on  their  bellies.  So  do 
states  and  democracies.  The  secret  of  the  success  of  our 
Federal  government  is  not  the  nice  balance  maintained  by 
our  constitution  between  the  powers  of  the  executive,  legis- 
lative, and  judiciary  departments  of  the  central  govern- 
ment or  between  it  and  State  rights  but  our  ability  to  pro- 
vide wholesome  food  to  keep  the  digestive  organs  of  the 
masses  in  a  healthy  condition.  Whenever  the  standard  of 
American  living  shall  be  perceptibly  lowered,  then  the 
American  people,  as  they  did  before,  will  speedily  impress 
the  moneyed  power  and  the  knaves  and  fogies  of  politics 
with  the  fact,  that  the  descendants  of  the  patriots  who 
threw  the  tea  into  Boston  harbor  and  emancipated  millions 
of  slaves,  constitutionally  guaranteed  property,  will  not 
stand  idly  by  w4iile  Capitalism  and  Romanism  constitution- 
ally pervert  the  republic  into  an  empire  in  which  the 
supreme  power  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  wealthy  classes 
under  the  supremacy  of  the  Pontiff.  There  is  a  higher 
authority  than  the  Constitution,  the  authority  of  the  people, 
which  must  in  the  last  resort,  decide.  Much  they  have 
already  suffered.  But  if  the  signs  on  our  political  firma- 
ment do  not  belie  us,  the  time  is  nigh  when  the  people  will 
exercise  this  authority. 

SECTION   III 

The  Presidential  Form  of  Government.  The  political 
causes  of  the  corruption  and  mediocracy  which  for  over  a 
generation  have  characterized  our  National,  State,  and 
Municipal  governments  are  evils  latent  in  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution and  in  antiquated  administrative  organization. 
These  evils  were  revealed  when  American  society  outgrew 
provincialism  and  the  narrow  conditions  of  pastoral  life. 

To-day  it  is  a  serious  question  demanding  an  early  solu- 
tion whether  the  Presidential  form  of  government,  that  is, 
personal  government,  is  the  proper  one  for  a  democracy 
embracing  an  industrial  nation  of  ninety  millions  of  people. 


134  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Witliin  a  generation,  under  the  complex  conditions  of  mod- 
ern civilization,  it  has  shown  all  the  faults  and  drawbacks 
of  absoluti.sni  and  monarchism  and  none  of  their  redeeming 
qualities.  Commanding  the  army  and  navy  and  an  im- 
mense patronage  to  corrupt  Congress  and  the  Veto  to  coerce 
it,  also  controlling  the  Federal  judiciary,  the  President 
actually  wields  powers  more  arbitrary-  and  morally  and 
physically  more  effective  on  the  body  politic  and,  therefore, 
more  dangerous  to  the  maintenance  and  progress  of  popular 
government  than  any  of  the  constitutional  monarchs  of 
Europe.  With  the  gradual  decline  of  democracy,  unavoid- 
able under  industrial  feudalism  and  present  social  con- 
ditions, the  Presidential  form  of  government,  in  itself, 
must  powerfully  aid  the  reactionary  elements  ever  ready 
to  deprive  the  masses  of  sovereignty. 

The  mode  of  election  is  a  standing  menace  to  democracy 
because  it  is  an  ever  flowing  source  of  evils  which  have 
gradually  undermined  political  morality  and  made  universal 
suffrage,  the  crowning  franchise  and  strongest  safeguard 
to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  almost  illusory.  It  fosters 
corruption  and  favors  mediocrity,  inasmuch  as  it  forces 
nominating  conventions  to  consider,  first  of  all,  the  avail- 
ability of  candidates  in  their  relation  to  political  machines 
and  borough  interests.  The  highest  office  is  the  football 
of  huckstering  political  jugglers,  of  ignorant  and  rapacious 
negro  delegations,  of  demagogues  in  the  pay  of  corporations, 
and  of  bosses  who  rose  from  the  foulest  moral  cesspool  of 
ward  politics  or  are  the  representatives  of  large  private 
interests.  The  election,  being  by  states  and,  indirect, 
always  turns  on  pivotal  States  and,  therefore,  necessitates 
the  raising  of  large  corruption  funds  from  trusts,  corpora- 
tions, and  the  moneyed  interests  generally.  Thus  nomina- 
tions for  the  Presidency  are  actually  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder  and  the  successful  candidate,  of  course,  at  once  be- 
comes a  mere  tool  of  interests  hostile  to  democracy. 

It  is  only  a  touch  of  nature  that  he  should  desire  a  re- 
election. The  taste  of  power,  luxury,  and  splendor,  once 
enjoyed,  develops  in  our  materialistic  age  a  deeply  hidden 
but  nevertheless  irresistible  agency  of  corruption.  The 
Presidents  of  the  future  wdll  be  neither  stoics  nor  ascetics, 
therefore,  their  moral  being  will  give  way  to  the  natural 
desire  to  live,  after  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  office,  in 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       135 

the    luxurious    surroundings    experienced    in    the    White 
House. 

The  candidates  of  the  future  must  be  chosen  from  the 
very  rich  or  the  Presidents  will  be  tempted  to  amass  large 
fortunes — a  temptation  too  strong  for  ordinary  mortals  to 
withstand.  Therefore,  the  American  people  will  be  placed 
between  "Scylla  and  Charybdis."  From  bestowing  high 
offices  for  favors  and  money  received  during  the  election 
to  downright  stealing  is  but  one  step.  Thus  the  people  may 
be  overwhelmed  with  scandal  and  infamy.  Since  the  sec- 
ond election  of  Grant,  with  the  exception  of  Wilson,  the 
Presidency  has  been  the  sport  of  political  machines,  of  par- 
ticularistic and  moneyed  interests,  and  of  hierarchical  de- 
signs. Consequently  the  candidates  were  always  studiously 
selected  from  a  class  of  ordinary  politicians  of  moderate 
excellence,  lacking  in  the  high  intellectual  and  moral  quali- 
ties absolutely  necessary  to  guide  a  powerful,  numerous, 
and  always  advancing  nation  under  complex  conditions 
without  impairment  of  the  sensibilities  and  spirit  of  democ- 
racy. Certainly  the  Presidential  office  is  inconsistent  with 
it ;  in  a  democracy  it  is  an  anomalism  and,  sooner  or  later, 
will  be  used  as  a  lever  for  the  discomfiture  and  reduction  of 
the  people.  Either  the  office  should  be  abolished  or  the 
President  should  be  elected  by  the  direct  vote  of  the  people 
for  only  one  term  corresponding  with  that  of  the  popular 
branch  of  Congress  which  should  be  extended  to  six  years 
under  the  law  of  the  recall. 

SECTION   IV 

Is  Parliamentary  Government  a  Failure?  The  late 
Prince  Consort  of  England  provoked  the  conservative  ele- 
ment in  English  society  by  declaring  that,  in  his  opinion, 
"parliamentary  government  was  on  trial."  To  judge  from 
the  action  of  parliamentary  bodies,  the  world  over,  it 
appears  reasonable  that  the  peoples  governed  by  them  are 
nearly  ready  to  pronounce  a  verdict  which  undoubtedly  will 
be  unfavorable  to  the  infallibility  and  sanctity  of  represent- 
ative institutions  under  their  present  organization  and  mode 
of  election. 

Our  Congress  makes  no  exception  from  the  general  rule. 
Parliamentarism  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  the  middle 
class,  which  it  represents,  is  no  longer  able  to  direct  intel- 


136  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ligt'utly  and  honestly  the  alt'airs  of  great  nations.  It  is 
bankrupt  in  iiiiiul  and  soul.  Corruption,  ignorance,  over- 
bearing insolence,  and  slavisli  subordination  to  tiie  moneyed 
interests  are  to-day  tlie  curses  of  parliamentarism.  In 
modern  times  all  ipiestions-of  State  can  be  solved  only  by 
the  application  of  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  efforts, 
with  the  aid  of  a  varied  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
subjects  under  discussion.  Most  of  these  demand  the  study 
and  experience  of  a  lifetime,  historical  and  scientific  re- 
search, earnestness  of  purpose  and  disinterested  loyalty  to 
the  general  interests  of  the  nation.  The  manner  of  selec- 
tion of  the  representatives  to  the  popular  branch  of  Con- 
gress does  not  assure  these  qualities.  Nominations  are  local- 
ized and  given  for  political  services  as  party  rewards,  or 
to  pacify  or  propitiate  local  and  private  interests,  in  a 
factitious  spirit,  often  in  spite  and  peevishness.  Thus, 
men  of  high  intellect,  of  superior  education,  and  of  patriot- 
ism, who  are  master  minds  in  their  calling,  are  seldom  chosen 
as  exponents  of  popular  government  under  an  election 
system  which  carries  mediaeval  traditions  and  antiquated 
usages  into  the  ever  expanding  life  of  modern  times. 

Our  House  of  Representatives  is,  therefore,  an  assemblage 
of  men  of  much  tongue  and  little  judgment  or  knowledge, 
of  arrant  demagogues  and  moral  cowards,  and  of  narrow- 
minded  villagers  and  vulgar  ward  politicians.  It  is  too 
numerous  a  body  to  act  rationally  and  intelligently.  The 
make-up  of  its  committees  is  the  result  of  log-rolling  and 
party  intrigue,  of  Executive  self-conceit  and  ambition,  and 
of  the  demands  of  large  private  interests  which  require  pay- 
ment in  favorable  legislation  for  the  moneys  expended  in 
the  election  of  members  and  for  the  success  of  parties. 
The  House  of  Representatives  is  no  longer  possessed  of  the 
democratic  spirit  and  of  an  exalted  conception  of  public 
duties  commanding  a  fearless  and  honest  loyalty  to  the 
people,  aye,  the  sense  of  duty  in  the  representatives  of  the 
Nation  is  signally  and  deplorably  degraded.  The  spirit 
now  animating  our  representatives  is  one  of  subserviency 
to  Capitalism  and  the  reactionary  forces  generally,  of 
malign  intent  against  the  vital  interests  of  the  nation,  and 
of  rank  demagogism  to  hoodwink  the  open-mouthed, 
thoughtless,   and   vulgarly   constituted  voters. 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       137 
SECTION   V 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States.  When  the  question 
of  tlie  adoption  or  rejection  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  submitted  to  the  States,  the  decision  turning  on 
the  affirmative  vote  of  Middletown,  a  small  village  in  New 
York,  it  was  generally  considered  a  compromise  measure, 
a  make-shift,  through  which  democracy  secured  a  popular 
National  assembly  and  the  classes  the  most  undemocratic 
representative  body  in  the  world,  the  Federal   Senate. 

The  principle  of  State  rights,  past  and  present,  the  ex- 
pression of  class  privileges  and  particularistic  interests, 
was  embodied  in  the  Senate,  an  assemblage  of  notables  made 
immutable  and  perpetual  as  long  as  any  one  of  the  States 
shall  remain  under  the  influence  of  the  classes.  The  consti- 
tution provides  that  no  State  can  be  deprived  of  its  equal 
representation  in  the  Senate  without  its  own  consent.  This 
clause  clothes  the  Senate  with  the  attributes  of  perpetuity 
and  immutability  and  with  a  quasi  monarchical  character 
of  government  by  the  Grace  of  God. 

As  a  legislative  body,  having  nearly  coordinate  powers 
with  the  House  of  Representatives,  with  additional  executive 
powers  vested  in  the  right  to  confirm  or  to  reject  the  admin- 
istrative and  army  and  navy  appointments  of  the  Execu- 
tive, and  the  right  to  confirm  or  reject  the  appointments  to 
the  highest  constitutional  Court,  a  right  enclosing  an  ele- 
ment of  absolutism  in  government,  the  Federal  Senate  is 
de  facto  if  not  de  jure  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
an  elective  oligarchy  responsible  to  nobody,  its  members 
amenable  only  to  its  own  discipline.  In  point  of  fact,  it 
is  the  most  extraordinary  political  body  that  ever  existed,  a 
body  entirely  independent  of  the  governed  and  to  a  sense 
even  independent  of  the  Constitution  or  superior  to  it, 
because  it  controls  the  court  interpreting  the  same.  In  its 
constitution  and  authority  the  Federal  Senate  can  only  be 
compared  with  the  "Council  of  Ten"  of  Venice.  The  his- 
tory of  this  body  may  become  also  the  history  of  the  United 
States  Senate. 

The  principal  reason  for  the  creation  of  these  bodies  was 
the  supposed  necessity  of  a  bulwark  and  defense  against 
fantastic  and  anarchical  legislation.  So  long  as  the  com- 
munity remained  morally  pure  and  within  the  economic  and 
social  confines  existing  at  the  time  of  the  creation  of  these 
bodies,  they  fulfilled  their  functions  and  fitted  nicely  into 


138  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  framework  of  society.  But  under  changed  economic 
conditions,  with  the  growth  in  power,  population  and  class 
interests,  with  the  exception  bf  the  l*apal  camarilla,  the 
Counsel  of  Ten  became  the  most  corrupt  and  desi)otic  polit- 
ical body  known  to  history.  The  Federal  Senate,  in  its 
development  into  an  oligarchic  body,  has  already  reached 
the  stiige  of  corruption.  With  the  growth  of  Industrial 
Feudalism  and  therefore  of  Capitalism  in  the  South,  with 
the  corresponding  decline  in  power  of  the  Northern  democ- 
racy and  a  crisis  in  our  social  relations  approaching,  the 
Federal  Senate  may  yet  develop  the  despotic  character  of 
the  Council  of  Ten.  That  many  of  our  Senators  are 
already  thus  spirited  appears  from  the  fact  that  the  bill 
offered  by  a  reconstructed  Southern  brigadier  in  1894,  under 
cover  of  protecting  the  mail  at  the  time  of  the  Chicago  rail- 
road strike,  for  the  punishment  of  railroad  strikers  with 
twenty  years'  penal  servitude,  was  received  in  silence  and 
regularly  referred.  The  nefarious  measure  raised  no  out- 
cry of  democratic  indignation  and  no  protest  of  outraged 
humanity. 

The  "King  is  dead.  Long  live  the  King."  Under  the 
ancient  regime  this  loyal  proclamation  gave  expression  to 
the  immutability  and  perpetuity  of  absolutism.  Our  Kin^ 
never  dies.  The  Federal  Senate  represents  to-day  under 
the  parliamentary  system  of  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  for  the  people,  the  ancient  regime  of  the  resur- 
rected slavoeracy  and  of  the  classes  under  new  environ- 
ments and  conditions  destructive  alike  to  the  moral  sense 
and  patriotic  and  chivalric  spirit  of  which  in  ante  helium 
days  the  Senate  was  the  embodiment  of  the  liberties  of 
the  people.  The  Senators  from  the  South  are  the  represent- 
atives of  the  landed  aristocracy,  those  from  the  North  the 
representatives  of  plutocracy.  Henceforth  the  history  of 
the  Senate  will  be  a  relation  of  its  corruption,  of  violations 
.and  perversions  of  the  laws,  of  usurpation  of  the  powers  of 
Ihe  general  government,  of  the  restriction  and  curtailment 
lof  popular  rights,  and  of  the  discomfiture  of  democracy. 

Immutability  and  perpetuity  mean  immunity  which,  in 
government,  is  always  a  pretext  and  an  incentive  for  out- 
raging decency  and  liberty.  The  Federal  Senate  should  be 
abolished  and  supplanted  by  technical  commissions  to  pre- 
pare and  supervise  national  legislation.  It  would  be  idle 
Jiypocrisy  not  to  say  plainly  that  the  immense  majority  of 


ANARCHICAL  COXDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       139 

the  American  people  are  sick  to  death  of  an  institution 
which  on  account  of  its  corruption  has  become  an  eyesore 
and  a  nuisance,  and  in  its  imbecile  weakness  and  immobil- 
ity, and  arrogant  self-imposture  is  a  stumbling  block  to  the 
nation's  economic  and  social  progress.  It  is  nonsense  to 
say  that  the  Federal  Senate  is  a  bulwark  of  State  rights  as 
they  are  popularly  understood,  and  the  palladium  of  local 
liberties.  It  is  the  bulwark  of  class  privileges  and  on  its 
preservation  the  safety  of  the  Republic  does  not  depend, 
rather  the  growth  of  plutocracy  and  the  enslavement  of 
the  masses. 

It  is  true,  that  in  the  infancy  of  the  Republic,  when  the 
masses  were  yet  to  be  educated  to  self-government,  there 
was  a  raison  d'etre  for  the  creation  and  existence  of  the 
Federal  Senate.  At  that  time  monarchical  traditions  were 
prevalent  and  the  masses,  as  yet,  had  no  conception  of  polit- 
ical morality  and  of  the  ethics  of  democracy.  A  conserva- 
tive body  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  guard  against  the 
possible  extravagances  of  a  possible  parliamentary  dema- 
gogism  and  to  stand  between  the  people  and  the  adventures 
of  Executive  ambition,  and  between  the  people  and  political 
suicide,  under  the  stress  of  their  own  passions  and  caprices. 

Unfortunately  for  the  perpetuity  of  American  institutions 
and  democracy,  the  Greek  scholars  and  statesmen  of  vague 
and  illusive  philosophy,  who  drafted  and  were  the  sponsors 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  took  as  their  model  for  such  a 
conservative  body  the  creations  of  Greek  and  Roman  states- 
manship paying  little  or  no  attention  to  institutions  his- 
torically evolved  from  the  democracy  and  morality  of  the 
Teuton  race.  Being  slave-holders  or  living  in  a  community 
sanctioning  slavery,  they  mistook  the  Greek  communities 
and  the  ancient  Roman  Republic  for  true  democracies, 
whereas,  according  to  Christian  and  Teuton  ethics  only  such 
communities  can  be  called  democracies  wherein  every  men- 
tally sound  and  morally  qualitied  person  is  socially  free 
and  politically  the  equal  of  his  fellow  man,  A  political 
body  enjoying  immunity  is  an  anomaly  in  a  republic;  it  is 
a  standing  menace  to  democracy  because  it  represents  for 
the  benefit  of  the  classes  the  monarchical  principle  of  irre- 
sponsible government  of  divine  origin. 

When  the  federal  constitution  was  adopted,  with  the 
exception  of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  State 
rights  represented  the  reserved  rights  of  the  classes.     The 


140  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

States  were  not  democracies,  and  their  constitutions  granted 
to  the  common  people  neither  social  nor  political  rights. 
The  new  States,  organized  under  Congressional  supervision, 
became  democracies,  because  the  National  legislature,  at 
that  time,  was  a  revolutionary  body  and  the  siiortsighted- 
ness  of  Southern  statesmanship  permitted  the  spirit  of 
Puritanism  to  permeate  the  new  organic  bodies.  The  reflex 
action  of  these  on  the  older  bodies,  the  influences  of  the 
French  revolution,  the  extension  of  economic  opportunities 
through  the  opening  of  new  territories,  the  struggle  over  the 
extension  of  slavery,  and  finally  immigration  made  democ- 
racies of  the  original  States  in  the  North.  When  this  social- 
political  process  was  completed  the  Senators  from  the 
North  were  the  representatives  of  true  democracies  and 
exhibited  to  the  world  the  sublime  spectacle  of  an  assem- 
blage of  notables  of  the  highest  intellectual  power  and  polit- 
ical morality,  of  deepest  devotion  to  the  country,  to  the 
people  and  to  humanity.  The  Senators  from  the  South 
were  possessed  of  the  chivalric  spirit  of  a  landed  aristocracy 
which  also  excluded  the  jobbers'  greed  from  the  Council 
chamber.  The  Southern  delegation  represented  in  the 
Senate  State,  or  reserved,  rights  which  together  with  slav- 
ery the  Northern  delegation  with  its  growth  in  the  demo- 
cratic spirit  more  and  more  vigorously  assailed.  The  error 
of  the  Democratic  party,  leading  to  its  ultimate  disruption, 
has  been  the  defence  of  a  principle  as  democratic  that  is  at 
variance  with  the  principle  of  self-government  or  township- 
system  of  government  from  which  American  democracy 
took  its  start.  The  Populist  movement  in  the  South  and 
"West,  though  partly  fantastic  and  irrational,  has  been  and 
is  an  unconscious  protest  against  the  doctrine  of  State 
rights  and  its  undemocratic  spirit. 

With  the  decline  of  democracy  in  the  North,  with  the 
retrogression  of  its  society  into  castes,  that  is  into  a  division 
of  the  rich  and  poor,  the  Federal  Senate  had  again  to 
assume  its  original  character  as  the  bulwark  of  reserved 
rights  which  in  the  South,  now  as  of  old,  represent  the 
privileges  of  the  landed  estate,  and  in  the  North,  under 
changed  economic  conditions,  the  demands  and  selfish  pur- 
poses of  the  moneyed  interests.  The  position  of  Senator 
Sherman  of  Ohio  on  the  Income  Tax  clearly  demonstrates 
the  great  moral  and  political  change  in  the  Senate's  evolu- 
tion above  referred  to.     In  1870,  when  yet  under  the  spell 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       141 

of  the  then  expiring  great  onward  movement  of  democracy, 
he  voted  in  favor  of  the  Income  Tax;  in  1894  as  the  fore- 
most or  rather  most  intellectual  representative  of  Capital- 
ism in  the  Senate  Chamber,  he  opposed  it.  The  generation 
of  Senators  who  fought  the  great  battles  of  freedom  left 
not  riches  but  the  glory  of  their  civic  virtues  and  achieve- 
ments. The  Senators  of  the  last  generation  have  amassed 
fortunes  or  bought  the  toga  to  betray  the  people. 

When  luxury  and  riches  had  destroyed  the  manhood, 
virtue  and  patriotism  of  the  Senators  of  Caesarian  Rome, 
they  adored  the  horse  "Caligula"  at  the  despot's  bidding. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  will  worship  the  golden  calf.  Already  a  willing 
tool  of  the  trusts  and  of  that  vulgar  and  soul-destroying 
power  that  paraphrases  the  despotic  expressions  of  all  times 
in  the  dictum:  "The  people  be  damned,"  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  should  be  blotted  out  before  it  has  the 
chance  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  to  corrupt 
the  nation.  Notwithstanding  the  adopted  amendment  of 
the  direct  election  of  Senators  by  the  people,  the  platform 
of  ever^^  popular  party  should  close  with  the  democratic 
demand  delendus  est  Senatus. 

SECTION   VI 

Our  Judiciary  and  Lawyers.  No  civilized  people  ever 
submitted  to  the  arbitrary  powers  of  a  corrupt  judiciary 
and  long  preserved  their  liberties.  It  is  public  property 
that  our  judicatory,  from  the  highest  court  to  the  lowest, 
is  corrupt  and  that  judicial  legislation  is  at  the  bidding  of 
parties,  factions,  corporations,  and  the  moneyed  interests 
generally.  It  is  also  the  sense  of  the  public  that  ours  is  a 
law-ridden  country  wherein  the  judiciary  has  usurped 
despotic  powers  and  with  an  immense  army  of  lawyers,  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  necessities  of  the  public,  has  risen 
not  in  dignity  but  in  political  influence  to  an  exceptional 
position,  in  fact  to  that  of  a  privileged  class. 

Our  laws  are  in  a  chaotic  condition ;  they  are  not  codified 
or  generally  applicable  within  the  nation.  The  guiding 
principles  of  our  law  are  few  and  plain  but  they  are  over- 
laid with  a  mountainous  mass  of  decisions,  the  arbitrary 
reference  to  which  makes  the  administration  of  justice  a 
curse  to  the  people  and  destroys  within  the  community  that 
respect  for  law  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  order.     In  a 


142  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

democracy,  it  is  an  anomaly  to  authorize  a  creature  of  the 
people's  will  to  interpret  the  expressions  of  the  same  or 
to  set  it  aside  altogether,  to  exercise  through  judicial  legis- 
lation an  independent  or  authoritative  power  and  to  clothe 
almost  irresponsible  individuals  with  the  despotic  power 
of  issuing  orders  and  inhibitions.  Our  judiciary,  federal, 
state,  and  local,  has  grown  into  an  exempt  body  of  invidious 
distinctions  assailing  the  liberties  of  the  people  more 
strongly,  steadily,  and  insidiously  than  any  other  reaction- 
ary agency. 

The  Dred  Scott  decision  in  favor  of  slavery,  and  the 
recent  attempts  of  Federal  and  State  Courts  to  interfere 
in  favor  of  monopolies  with  the  rights  of  labor  were  the 
product  of  Constitutional  provisions  which  had  their 
source  in  the  desire  of  the  classes  to  secure  forever  judicial 
protection  to  their  privileges  in  a  possible  democracy.  The 
recent  usurpations  of  power  growing  out  of  these  provisions 
are  to  extend  and  enlarge  such  judicial  protection  under 
the  changed  conditions  in  the  body  politic  to  newly  created 
particularistic  interests  in  their  relation  to  the  dependent 
masses.  Before  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the  slave  holders 
perverted  the  judicatoiy  into  an  instrument  for  the  exten- 
sion and  retention  of  chattel  slavery;  at  present,  it  seems 
to  be  the  intention  of  plutocracy  to  use  through  the  courts 
the  authority  of  the  people  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  an  insidious  manner  of  employing  the  police  and 
military  powers  of  the  government  to  further  private  inter- 
ests and  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  overt  and  despotic 
measures  and  to  cover  up  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
social  and  political  conditions  of  the  generality  of  the 
nation.  Thus  the  sanctity  of  the  law  is  violated ;  it  is 
prostituted  to  employ  for  the  suppression  of  liberty,  under 
one  guise  or  another,  the  very  means  thought  to  be  the 
strongest  safeguards  to  democracy. 

It  is  important  that  the  law  should  be  upheld,  that  order 
should  prevail,  that  crime  should  be  punished,  but  far  more 
important  that  the  law  should  not  be  prostituted  in  the 
interests  of  the  foes  of  the  people,  and,  that  no  arbitrary 
power  should  be  tolerated  in  the  judiciary.  No  one  who 
knows  the  history  of  the  struggles  of  our  people  for  equality 
under  the  law  and  for  the  guarantee  of  individual  liberty 
against  despotic  power  can  see  it  destroyed  and  infringed 
without  a  feeling  of  resentment.     The  prostitution  of  the 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       143 

ermine  and  of  the  law,  whether  in  the  interests  of  individ- 
uals, corporations,  factions,  or  parties,  does  more  to  destroy 
order,  imperil  society  and  throw  the  fabric  of  state  into 
chaos  than  mob  violence  and  all  the  rant  of  fanatics  or  the 
vagaries  of  the  rankest  rogues  of  anarchy.  History 
teaches,  that  whenever  the  brain  and  substance  of  a  nation 
arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  justice  is  no  longer  to  be  had, 
a  social  upheaval  is  imminent. 

When  the  anarchical  forces  of  the  French  revolution  had 
exhausted  themselves,  and  the  French  people  were  to  enter 
into  a  new  national  existence.  Napoleon's  master  mind  per- 
ceived the  imperative  necessity  of  giving  to  the  newly  form- 
ing society  a  uniform  and  codified  law.  As  first  consul  and 
as  Emperor  he  pursued  this  work  to  its  completion.  It  is 
to-day  the  rock  on  which  French  society  rests  and,  which 
more  than  any  other  agency,  has  safeguarded  it  against  the 
repeated  assaults  of  anarchy  and  mob  aggressions.  When 
the  political  unification  of  Germany  was  an  accomplished 
fact,  her  statesmen  immediately  provided  the  newly  welded 
nation  Avith  a  uniform  and  codified  law.  It  is  the  experi- 
ence of  historj^,  that  no  nation  can  long  remain  in  a  healthy 
condition  and  preserve  its  morals  and  energies  without  uni- 
formity in  law  and  in  the  administration  of  justice. 

In  ante  bellum  days,  before  we  entered  into  industrialism, 
we  were  not  a  nation  but  a  confederation  of  States  with 
great  diversity  of  interests,  habits,  and  usages,  and  were, 
therefore,  not  under  the  economic  and  social  necessity  of 
uniformity  in  law  and  of  its  administration.  Being  then  an 
agricultural  people,  the  questions  of  law  submitted  to  the 
courts  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  were 
few,  chiefly  relating  to  land  tenures  and  to  matters  which 
had  been  well  settled  during  centuries  of  judicial  legisla- 
tion under  a  fixed  condition  of  society.  Entering  into  a 
closer  Union,  into  a  national  bond  which  demands  uni- 
formity of  purpose  in  economic  and  social  existence,  and 
into  the  complex  conditions  of  modern  civilization,  we 
should  have  recast  the  country's  judicial  legislation  into  a 
uniform  body,  providing  for  all  modem  requirements  and 
of  such  simplicity  and  conciseness  as  to  harmonize  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  with  democracy.  Such  an  under- 
taking could  not  affect  the  liberties  of  the  people,  or  the 
sovereignty  of  the  States.  It  might  have  affected  the  per^ 
quisites  of   the   army   of  trickisli  knaves  called   lawyers, 


144  CASSOCK  AND  SWORU 

parasites  of  society,  who  fatten  on  t.lie  misery  of  tlie  com- 
munity and  are  a  disgrace  to  an  ancient  and  honorable  pro- 
fession that  generally  championed  the  cause  of  the  people ; 
of  politicians  who  aspire  to  judicial  honors  as  an  easy  way 
t-o  make  a  living  or  to  amass  fortunes;  of  the  vampires  in 
politics  and  l)usiness  who  thrive  in  riches  and  honors  by 
vices  or  means  dark  and  mysterious;  and  of  the  plutocrats 
who  evade  responsil)ilities  and  duties  and  profit  generally 
from  the  babel  of  confusion  in  our  administration  of  justice. 
Certainly  there  could  be  no  rashness  about  it,  at  a  time 
when  ever}'  idea  and  principle  of  jurisprudence  had  been 
expounded  and  discussed,  when  advantage  could  be  derived 
from  the  most  diversified  experience,  and  when  the  nation 
could  boast  of  lawyers  of  the  first  rank  and  of  unquestion- 
able loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  people,  qualities  which 
apparently  are  now  sadly  lacking  in  the  profession.  We 
failed  to  reduce  the  law  to  the  form  of  a  statute,  and  judicial 
legislation  to  the  narrowest  practical  limits,  and,  therefore, 
we  failed  to  stop  the  main  sources  of  corruption  in  the 
administration  of  justice  and  to  uphold  the  majesty  of  the 
law.  We  failed  to  nationalize  it,  and,  therefore,  failed  in 
our  duty  toward  posterity  and  to  our  country.  We  failed 
to  expunge  from  our  laws  the  traditions,  inequalities, 
archaisms,  and  cruelty  of  centuries  of  class  legislation  and, 
therefore,  failed  in  our  duty  to  democracy  and  obstructed 
the  humane  in  American  society.  Considering  the  fact, 
deplorable  as  it  is,  that  by  the  character  of  our  institutions, 
by  usage  and  tradition,  and  for  want  of  a  numerous  cultured 
class  the  lawyers  have  almost  monopolized  politics  and  the 
functions  of  the  legislature,  it  became  our  imperative  duty 
to  raise  the  profession  to  a  higher  level  in  knowledge,  ethics, 
and  deportment.  Failing  in  this  we  are  now  burdened 
with  a  judiciary''  of  low  intellect  and  bad  manners  only 
slightly  elevated  above  the  moral  sense  of  the  pothouse  pol- 
iticians, with  pettifogging  lawj-ers  of  low  and  vulgar  life, 
of  legislators  and  administrative  officers  of  whom  a 
I\Iayor  of  New  York  City  said  :  ' '  They  cheat  the  people  in 
the  daytime,  at  night  they  (in  gambling)  cheat  each  other." 
To  rid  the  people  of  this  class  of  lawyers  the  law  should  be 
free  to  all,  or  the  privileges  and  exceptional  position  which 
this  class  now  enjoys  as  officers  of  courts  should  be  with- 
drawn and,  like  every  other  profession,  it  should  be  left 
under  the  present  condition  of  society  to  unrestricted  com- 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       145 

petition  that  the  fittest  might  survive.  The  extraordinary- 
position  of  this  profession  is  not  only  the  source  of  its  own 
corruption  but  also  largely  of  that  of  the  community  at 
large,  because  our  institutions  and  peculiar  process  of 
national  formation  were  not  favorable  to  the  development 
of  honor  in  the  abstract  and,  therefore,  to  that  of  an  esprit 
clc  corps.  Thus  license  grew  into  licentious  wickedness. 
The  fry  of  the  profession  became  the  underlings  of  the 
political  bosses  and  perverters  of  justice ;  and  the  upper 
strata  in  the  profession  the  procurers  of  the  trusts  and 
corporations  in  the  halls  of  justice  and  legislation.  The 
iniquities  of  the  profession  have  corrupted  the  social  organ- 
ism of  the  American  people.  Such  a  cancerous  growth  must 
be  cut  out  before  it  paralyzes  the  vital  forces  of  democracy. 
An  English  writer  in  his  book,  "The  Lawyer,  Our  Old 
Man  of  the  Sea,"  says:  "England  is  sutfering  from  the 
plague  of  legalism.  In  the  more  favorable  atmosphere  of 
the  United  States  legalism  has  become  something  even  more 
malignant,  legalitis."  He  compares  the  workings  of  the 
legal  systems  of  England  and  America  with  that  of  Ger- 
many, saying:  "Ours  is  one  with  local  embellishments;  a 
bar  uncontrolled ;  a  jury  system  abused ;  form  elevated  into 
a  fetish ;  legalism  sold  at  fancy  prices.  The  other  is  the 
antithesis  of  these  features.  Justice  is  cheap,  certain  and 
expeditious.  The  consequence  is  that  law  has  come  to  be 
almost  synonymous  with  justice,  and  it  is  not  overly  de- 
spised as  in  America,  nor  profoundly  mistrusted  as  in  this 
country ;  it  is  regarded  with  a  sentiment  of  sincere  respect 
by  the  decent  elements  in  the  conununity."  In  fact  we 
have  outstripped  the  evil  outgrowth  of  England 's  legal  sys- 
tem which,  in  its  abuses,  is  the  outcome  of  centuries  of  royal 
despotism,  of  an  aristocratic  society,  of  land  tenures,  of 
isolation,  of  commercial  supremacy,  and  of  an  ignorant, 
vicious  proletariat.  A  wholesome  national  balance  is  im- 
possible under  the  marked  ascendancy  of  the  legal  caste. 
The  civilized  nations  of  the  European  continent  have  found 
that  such  an  unwholesome  condition  is  prevented  by  ordain- 
ing that  the  judicial  career  shall  be  distinct  and  separate 
from  the  Bar  and  that  lawyers  shall  not  be  officers  of  a 
Court  and  be  held  strictly  responsible.  They  find  that  by 
giving  the  occupants  of  the  Bench  a  special  training  in  an 
atmosphere  entirely  removed  from  that  of  the  Bar  an 
efficient  check  is  provided  against  narrow  professional  aims 


146  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  the  insidious  techuicalities  which  run  riot  in  Anglo- 
Saxondom.  We  find  that  our  country  with  the  legal  pro- 
fession predominant  in  excess  of  all  precedent  and  the  sole 
maker  of  laws,  is  nevertheless  a  prey  to  lawlessness  and 
preneral  maladministration  which  threatens  slowly  but 
surely,  hardly  perceptible  at  first,  to  undennine  the  morals 
of  the  nation. 

There  is  a  close  resemblance  between  legalism  and  cler- 
icalism. As  the  worst  of  all  Governments,  that  which  is 
most  fatal  to  religion,  is  government  by  priests,  so  hardly 
less,  if  indeed  not  quite  as  bad,  is  government  by  lawyers. 
Legalism  is  fatal  to  law,  justice  and  the  moral  progress  of 
nations.  In  the  United  States  the  question  is:  "Will 
legalism  be  the  forerunner  of  Romanism,  of  the  rule  of 
Popery?" 


CHAPTER  II 

Municipalities 

section  i 

The  Real  Causes  of  Municipal  Misgovernment  and  Cor- 
ruption. One  of  the  most  dangerous  tendencies  of  current 
industrial  life  is  the  growth  of  cities  as  centers  of  industry. 
Though  in  the  future,  under  advanced  economic  and  social 
conditions,  the  aggregation  of  population  and  the  concen- 
tration of  industries  must  lead  to  a  higher  civilization  and 
insure  a  more  rapid  advancement  of  the  human  race,  in  the 
age  of  egotism  and  materialism,  the  government  of  cities 
and  their  social  bearing  on  the  body  politic  are  problems 
prolific  of  evil. 

That  the  rapid  growth  of  American  cities  has  been  one  of 
the  main  causes  of  the  decline  of  American  democracy 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  founders  of  the  Union  could 
not  foresee  Industrial  Feudalism  and,  therefore,  could  have 
had  no  thought  of  the  unprecedented  growth  of  American 
cities  and  of  their  proletarian  population.  In  their  seclu- 
sion, they  paid  little  attention  to  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  cities  and  to  the  tremendous  role  they  were  playing 
in  the  history  of  our  race.  They  failed  to  provide  organic 
laws  for  their  government  and  channels  through  which  their 
social  influences  could  act  beneficially  on  the  body  politic. 
Consequently  our  cities  have  been  and  are  the  worst  gov- 
erned municipalities  in  the  civilized  world,  and  their  social 
influences  have  been  misdirected  and  turned  into  evil. 

When  the  National  government  was  established,  the 
founders  of  the  Union,  partly  from  necessity,  partly  moved 
by  class  interests,  chose  the  colonies  as  States  as  the 
integrant  parts  of  the  Republic,  political  units  of  arbitrary 
conception  and  quantity  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  had  no  historical  development 
but  were  the  product  of  roj'al  favoritism,  of  international 
treaties,  and  of  the  irregular  advances  of  a  pioneer  civiliza- 
tion.    It  is  true,  that,  at  the  time,  local  conditions,  business 

147 


148  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

interests,  and  feelings  in  one  state  were  unlike  those  of 
any  other  state.  They  were,  however,  ditTerences  growing 
out  of  passing  eonditions  not  of  a  racial  or  religious  charac- 
ter. With  the  great  movement  of  population  across  the 
Alleghanies,  with  the  development  of  railways,  the  differ- 
ences in  the  character  of  the  population  and  sentiment  of 
the  different  States,  with  the  exception  of  the  Slave-cursed 
section,  vanished.  With  the  extinction  of  slavery  the  State 
lines  were  merely  imaginary  in  most  essential  respects. 
Sufficient  proof  that  the  founders  of  the  Union  erred  when 
they  made  the  doctrine  of  States'  rights  the  structural 
foundation  of  the  Republic.  So  long  as  we  followed  agi*i- 
cultural  pursuits,  the  interests  of  all  the  people  of  all  the 
States  were  virtually  the  same,  and  the  real  dangers  hidden 
in  a  false  doctrine  were  not  revealed.  Whenever  they  are 
fully  uncovered,  the  Union  will  pass  through  another  crisis 
of  revolutionary  moment. 

Of  all  the  relations  of  the  different  parts  and  interests 
within  the  Union  to  each  other,  and  to  the  nation,  there  is 
not  one  fraught  with  greater  danger  than  that  of  the  States 
to  the  government  of  large  cities  and  to  their  metropolitan 
development.  The  State  being  the  embodiment  of  all  sov- 
ereign power,  the  cities  with  their  manifold  and  immense 
interests  unknown  a  century  before,  as  corporations  or 
creatures  of  the  State,  are  entirely  dependent  on  the 
pleasure  of  the  State.  Therefore,  their  governments  and 
revenues  were  always  at  the  mercy  of  interests  seldom  in 
harmony  with  their  own  or  those  of  democracy.  The  real 
or  imagined  necessities  of  political  parties  made  of  the  vital 
interests  of  the  cities  footballs  of  demagogism  and  of  their 
governments  hotbeds  of  corruption.  Such  a  condition  of 
affairs  reacted  disastrously  and  corruptly  on  the  nation. 
The  dependent  relation  of  the  cities  demoralized  the  State 
governments  and  legislatures  and  made  of  the  Capitols 
marts  for  the  sale  of  franchises  and  of  patronage.  It  de- 
stroyed the  effect  of  moral  principles  on  political  parties,  it 
developed  bossism  as  the  only  purely  American  political 
institution,  it  debauched  public  life  because  it  permitted 
the  corrupt  use  of  the  many  offices  and  large  revenues  of  the 
cities  as  spoils  wherewith  to  reward  the  unworthy  and  the 
vicious  for  their  noxious  and  interested  activity  in  the 
baser  walks  of  political  life. 

No  amount  of  intelligence  and  no  amount  of  energy  will 


ANARCHICAL  COXDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       149 

save  a  nation  which  is  not  honest.  The  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion has  made  the  cities  the  arbiters  of  the  destiny  of  the 
nation.  Their  demoralization  means  the  destruction  of  the 
nation.  The  first  requisite  in  our  public  life,  therefore,  is 
the  maintenance  of  public  morality  and  of  patriotism  in  the 
cities.  Their  dependent  relation  has  almost  made  it  im- 
possible. Without  permanency  in  municipal  structures, 
complete  adhesion  of  the  organic  parts  is  not  possible,  or, 
pride  of  citizenship  in  the  purity,  preservation,  and  enlarge- 
ment of  the  structure  probable.  Surely,  it  appears  to  be 
a  waste  of  energy  on  the  part  of  patriotic  citizens  to  exert 
themselves  in  municipal  affairs  when  their  best  eft'orts  may 
be  almost  immediately  neutralized  or  set  at  naught  by  a 
State  election,  by  the  adoption  of  a  new  charter,  or  by  com- 
binations of  agents  of  Capitalism  and  particularistic  inter- 
ests, or  of  coarse,  ignorant  bosses,  creatures  of  the  gutter, 
tools  of  the  Romish  hierarchy,  not  seldom  graduates  in 
crime,  always  un-American  in  character  and  sentiment. 

The  political  power  of  these  bosses  is  derived  from  former 
bog-dwellers,  from  the  ignorant,  brutish,  and  superstitious 
Irish  rabble,  and  those  of  other  Roman  Catholic  countries 
who  blindly  obey  a  priesthood  acting  under  the  direction 
and  in  the  interest  of  a  foreign  ecclesiastical  power  that,  so 
so  far  as  American  institutions  are  concerned,  cares  naught 
for  their  weal  or  woe,  but  applies  its  political  power  to  the 
one  purpose  of  drawing  from  the  United  States  the  largest 
possible  revenues.  Wherever  the  Irish  and  Italian  Roman- 
ists are  a  numerous  body  of  voters,  reform  of  the  municipal 
government  is  not  possible  until  the  political  power  of  the 
Romish  church  is  broken.  It  is  not  to  the  interest  of  the 
wolf  that  the  shepherd  should  be  faithful  and  his  dog 
watchful.  It  is  not  to  the  interest  of  the  Romish  church 
that  the  government  of  our  cities  should  be  carried  on  intel- 
ligently and  honestly  and,  that  their  treasuries  should  be 
well  guarded.  For  centuries  without  political  motion,  with- 
out the  internal  sense  of  political  morality,  without  senti- 
ment of  public  morality,  without  perception  of  a  higher  law 
and  never  departing  an  iota  from  the  authentic  formulas 
of  priestcraft  and  the  inherited  hatred  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  often  even  without  the  sense  of  common  every  day 
honesty,  the  Catholic  or  Celtic  Irish  and  the  Italians  of 
Naples  and  Sicily  will  always  be  the  corrupt  element  in 
municipal  politics.    It  matters  not,  whether  they  are  of  the 


150  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Tammany  Hall  stamp  or  of  any  other  stamp,  their  loyalty 
is  not  to  the  public  but  to  the  Komisli  church,  and  their 
standard  of  political  morality  is  that  of  a  semi-barbarous 
people.  To  preach  to  such  the  gospel  of  morality  and 
elHciency  is  a  waste  of  time  and  energy.  They  have  no 
interest  whatever  in  good  municipal  government.  Anarchi- 
cal conditions  are  to  their  and  their  priestly  masters'  ad- 
vantage. 

Wherever  the  Romish  church  exercised  a  controlling  influ- 
ence in  municipal  politics,  in  Spain,  in  Italy  and  in  the 
South  American  republics,  corruption  and  mismanagement 
were  the  rule.  All  elibrts  to  reform  our  municipal  govern- 
ments will  fail  unless  they  are  directed  against  priestly 
interference.  It  is  more  than  folly,  it  is  crime,  to  combine 
with  any  political  body  remotely  al^liated  with  the  Romish 
church  for  the  purpose  of  municipal  reform.  It  is  enlisting 
the  devil  to  drive  out  the  devil. 

Another  source  of  the  demoralization  of  our  municipal 
governments,  in  fact,  a  first  cause  of  all  political  immoral- 
ity in  a  democracy  is  the  system  of  indirect  taxation.  The 
masses  in  our  large  cities  are  not  property  owners.  Though 
not  in  theory,  but  in  practice,  they  have  but  a  remote  inter- 
est in  honest  government.  Experience  has  taught  the 
tenant  that  rent  is  not  regulated  by  the  tax  rate  or  the  real 
value  of  the  property  but  by  the  amount  of  wages  earned 
and  that,  almost  everywhere  and  uniformly,  one-fourth  of 
it  is  exacted  as  rent.  That  of  the  storekeeper  is  regulated 
by  the  volume  and  profit  of  his  business.  English  traditions 
and  English  agrarian  law  have  granted  to  the  property 
owners  in  our  cities  exceptional  rights ;  they  are  a  favored- 
class  exempt  from  the  operation  of  all  laws  against  usury 
and  commanding  the  police  power  of  the  State  and  an 
almost  despotic  process  of  court  to  enforce  their  demands 
and  to  collect  their  dues  in  an  almost  arbitrary  manner. 

This  extraordinary  economic  condition  in  the  social  life 
of  our  cities  is  in  their  political  life  a  cause  and  an  effect. 
As  a  cause,  it  is  the  origin  and  soul  of  all  so-called  reform 
movements  whenever  a  further  increase  in  rent  would 
force  the  tenant  to  seek  cheaper  lodgings.  As  an  effect,  it 
operates  against  the  success  of  such  movements  because  the 
tenant  has  no  interest  whatever  to  assist  the  landlord  in 
lessening  his  burdens.  Indirect  taxation  and  landlordism 
are  to  a  great  extent  responsible  for  the  demoralization  of 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       151 

municipal  polities  and  the  debauchery  of  public  life  in 
our  cities.  The  fictitious  values  placed  on  city  property 
and  the  avarice  of  landlords,  combined  with  official  corrup- 
tion, have  lowered  the  moral  sense,  health  and  comfort  of 
the  poor  city  dweller  and  dwarfed  his  citizenship  and  re- 
sponsibility. Let  the  landlord,  to  enforce  his  claims,  be 
placed  on  an  equal,  legal  footing  with  every  other  business 
man  and  creditor.  Remove  his  privileges  and  change  the 
principle  of  taxation  and  the  ban  of  landlordism  is  at  once 
removed  from  our  cities. 

Within  another  generation  the  cities  will  be  a  conglomera- 
tion of  the  abodes  of  the  very  poor  and  of  the  sybaritical 
palaces  of  the  very  rich;  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  classes  and  the  masses  will  be  sharply  drawn;  on  the 
surface  the  metallic  ring  of  soulless  wealth,  below  the  rum- 
bling noises  of  the  approaching  cataclysm.  Therefore,  in 
the  future,  class  prejudices  will  most  strongly  operate 
against  all  efforts  of  a  purification  of  municipal  politics  in 
the  interest  of  the  classes. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  our  large  cities  the  decline  of 
democracy  has  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  capitalism. 
Asked  to  take  part  in  a  reform  movement  in  New  York 
City  one  of  the  Astors  cabled  from  England :  "I  have  no 
interest  in  the  matter. ' '  Corruptly  to  further  their  partic- 
ularistic interests,  to  escape  their  just  obligations  and  for 
purposes  of  spoliation,  the  very  rich,  the  corporations  and 
Capitalism  generally  are  directly  interested  in  the  demoral- 
ization of  municipal  governments.  The  testimony  given  be- 
fore Investigation  Committees  and  in  Courts  has  revealed  a 
condition  of  depravity  and  corruption  in  the  Departments 
of  Police  of  our  large  cities  almost  bej'^ond  human  belief. 
Judge  Goggin  of  Chicago,  in  a  most  scathing  speech  deliv- 
ered from  the  bench  on  the  corruption  of  the  Department 
of  Police  of  that  city,  said :  ' '  Our  city  has  been  cursed  by 
many  unprovoked  murders  of  citizens  by  policemen.  They 
are  privileged  murderers.  It  has  got  to  be  so  that  a  police- 
man cannot  be  convicted  of  crime.  The  life  of  a  dog  is 
more  sacred  than  that  of  a  poor  inoffensive  citizen.  In  no 
city  of  Europe  could  this  man  (pointing  to  Policeman 
Cassidy,  charged  with  wantonly  killing  a  citizen)  have  com- 
mitted this  crime  and  not  be  hanged.  It  was  a  cold-blooded, 
brutal,  vicious,  uncalled-for  murder."  The  Lexow  Com- 
mittee and  numerous  other  Investigation  Committees  in 


152  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

other  cities  uneovered  the  foulest  cesspools  that  were  ever 
disclosed  in  the  histoiy  of  communities.  In  our  cities, 
human  depravity  is  fostered  for  its  putrid  usufruct  be- 
cause a  pliable,  debauched,  and  imbruted  police  force, 
steeped  in  crime  and  vice,  and  recruited  from  the  savage 
Irish  rabble,  serves  well  the  anti-social  interests  of  the  com- 
bines, pools,  and  trusts,  of  the  corporations  and  estates. 
Such  a  pretorian  force  overawes  at  the  ballot-box  the  moral 
and  patriotic  part  of  the  community  and  coerces  labor  to 
submit  to  spoliation. 

It  is  a  strange  spectacle  to  see  our  plutocrats  and  the 
Romish  hierarchy  cordially  sustaining  each  other  in  the 
hellish  purpose  of  demoralizing  the  public  life  in  the  great 
centers  of  population  and  industry  from  which  the  venom 
of  anarchy  flows  into  every  artery  of  the  body  politic,  pu- 
trifying  the  wounds  it  has  received  in  the  great  battle  of 
industrialism  and  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  It  is  an 
alarming  experience  that  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
citizen  guaranteed  in  the  constitution  are  no  longer  re- 
spected. Systematically,  and  to  a  purpose,  abuses  of 
judicial  and  police  power  are  encouraged  that  the  common 
people  may  get  used  to  despotic  measures,  that  patriotism, 
and  the  sense  of  public  responsibility  be  destroyed  to  pre- 
pare the  masses  for  the  yoke  of  plutocracy.  It  is  a  fiction 
in  the  poorer  parts  of  our  large  cities  that  a  man 's  house  is 
his  castle.  At  any  hour  of  the  day  and  night,  it  is  ruth- 
lessly and  unlawfully  invaded  by  the  police.  Pitt  once 
said  that  a  man's  home  might  be  "so  humble  that  the  winds 
would  blow  through  it  and  the  rain  enter  it,  but  the  King 
could  not."  The  people  who  live  in  squalor  or  in  poverty 
in  our  large  cities  have  no  longer  any  rights  which  plutoc- 
racy and  the  police  respect.  The  guardians  of  the  peace  of 
the  people,  through  the  perversion  of  the  law,  are  now  the 
masters  of  the  common  people,  an  alarming  condition  con- 
fronting the  great  democracy  of  the  North.  Arbitrary 
arrests,  illegal  invasions  of  the  home,  illogical  sumptuary 
laws,  abuses  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  election 
frauds  have  robbed  the  law  of  its  majesty.  The  anarchical 
tendencies  of  Capitalism  have  set  in  motion  a  counter  cur- 
rent from  below  which  in  the  nearest  future  may  sweep 
law  and  order  from  the  face  of  our  land.  The  deliverance 
of  our  large  cities  from  the  thraldom  of  Romanism,  from 
public  corruption,  and  from  the  debauching  nile  of  plutoc- 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       153 

racy  must  be  left  to  the  moral  forces  flowing  from  the  ethics 
of  our  race  and  of  the  Reformation,  The  cleansing  of  the 
Augean  stable  of  municipal  politics  is  but  part  of  the 
greater  task  which  Providence  has  imposed  on  the  Ameri- 
can people. 

SECTION   II 

Civil  Service  Reform  and  Our  Universities.  So  long  as 
American  society  moved  within  the  narrow  intellectual 
confines  of  pastoral  life  and  was  encompassed  by  its  prim- 
itive forms,  and  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  and  all 
the  effects  of  the  nation 's  soul  quickened  in  moral  theology, 
the  Jacksonian  principle  of  rotation  in  ofiSce  continued  to 
act  as  a  cause  of  the  growth  of  democracy  and  produced  an 
efficient  administration  of  public  affairs. 

The  modern  expansion  of  private  and  public  life  and  the 
changed  economic  and  social  conditions  thereof,  the  conse- 
quent gradual  and  steady  decline  of  Puritanism,  of  religious 
fervor,  and  the  reduction  of  the  moral  standard  generally 
divested  this  principle  of  its  fundamental  energy  and  made 
our  civil  service  deficient  in  capacity  and  destitute  of  moral 
force.  Rotation  in  office  became  a  source  of  corruption,  a 
check  to  the  rational  development  of  the  nation 's  resources, 
and  a  drag-chain  to  its  intellectual  and  ethical  progress.  It 
led  to  public  extravagance,  put  a  premium  on  mediocracy, 
closed  the  halls  of  legislature  to  the  intellectual  and  cul- 
tured elements  and  forced  them  out  of  the  management  of 
public  affairs  and  made  virulent  the  national  diseases,  mor- 
bid pride  and  excessive  self-consciousness. 

Rotation  in  office  became  subversive  of  the  very  ends  for 
which  it  was  intended  and,  therefore,  a  menace  to  democ- 
racy when  Capitalism  assumed  the  control  of  the  political 
parties  and  dictated  the  appointments  to  office.  The  dem- 
ocratic spirit,  the  element  of  life  in  the  Republic,  was 
gradually  eliminated  from  the  administration  of  public 
affairs.  Consequently,  a  putrefying  process  set  in,  and  the 
leprous  infection  has  spread  until  the  whole  nation  has 
been  tainted  and  the  great  mass  of  people  are  almost  as 
devoid  of  civic  pride  and  public  spirit  as  if  they  had  no 
political  rights  whatever. 

Under  our  system  of  taxation  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment and  of  all  internal  improvements  are  directly  or  indi- 
rectly paid  by  the  democratic  masses.     To  them  it  is  a  vital 


154  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

question,  in  many  ways,  that  the  government  should  be 
economically  and  intelligently  administered.  Dishonesty 
and  extravagance,  and  waste  through  inefficiency,  not  only 
reduce  the  standard  of  living  of  the  mas.ses  but  also  fa.sten 
the  hold  of  International  Capitalism  on  the  masses.  For 
instance,  when  a  thousand  millions  of  surplus  accumulated 
by  excessive  taxation  in  the  National  treasury,  that  Inter- 
national Capitalism  might  exploit  our  business  community, 
had  been  criminally  squandered,  bonds  were  issued  to  con- 
tinue the  infamous  system  of  National  Banks  and  with  it 
and  through  it  the  exactions  of  Capitalism.  Offices  have 
been  multiplied  and  salaries  have  been  raised  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  services  rendered.  Armies  of  political 
vagabonds,  mostly  ignorant  and  vulgar  fellows,  make  up 
our  civil  sendee  establishments  that  like  upas  trees  of  im- 
mense size,  spreading  their  branches  over  the  entire  coun- 
trj%  have  by  their  poisonous  secretions  destroyed  the  polit- 
ical energy  of  the  people  and  caused  public  morals  and 
public  life  to  wither.  To  the  American  democracy  Civil 
Service  reform,  though  not  of  the  kind  with  which  of  late 
political  parties  have  hoodwinked  the  people,  is  a  vital 
question. 

We  need  a  permanent  civil  service  establishment  that  in 
its  upper  branches  will  embrace  the  intelligent  and  cultured 
of  the  nation.  Our  colleges  and  universities  are  so  far 
progressed  that  with  the  addition  of  the  social  sciences  to 
their  curriculum  they  can  supply  the  personnel  for  the 
higher  offices  in  every  department  of  the  National,  State 
and  local  governments.  With  the  permanence  of  the  estab- 
lishment and  its  social  elevation  the  esprit  de  corps  will  be 
educed  and  honesty,  efficiency,  and  loyalty  to  democracy 
secured.  Let  our  universities  accept  their  manifest  destiny 
to  realize  the  perfect  democratic  commonwealth  where  the 
wisest  will  rule  and  the  leaders  will  be  priests  of  truth, 
fearlessly  and  ceaselessly  laboring  for  the  public  good. 
The  complex  conditions  of  modern  society  demand  for  its 
direction  disciplined  and  well  stocked  minds.  The  saying, 
"Whomever  God  endows  with  office  He  also  endows  with 
sufficient  intelligence,"  has  become  discredited,  and  the 
idea  that  the  so-called  self-made  men  or  successful  business 
men  are  the  best  qualified  to  administer  the  government 
has  been  disproved.  As  a  rule  they  are  possessed  in  an 
aggravated  form  of  all  the  bad  qualities  of  the  middle 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY      155 

class,  lacking  also  the  education,  the  breadth  of  thought, 
and  the  largeness  of  soul,  in  modern  times  necessary  for 
governmental  duties. 

A  corrupt  and  inefficient  civil  service  creates  chaotic 
conditions  in  private  and  public  affairs.  True  democracy 
can  only  live  and  advance  to  the  Platonic  condition  in  an 
honestly,  scientifically,  and  orderly  conducted  community 
wherein  the  laws  are  just  and  equitable  and  impartially 
and  fearlessly  executed.  The  removal  of  the  United  States 
Senate,  the  reorganization,  in  principle  and  system,  of  the 
administration  of  justice  and  of  all  of  our  legislative  bodies, 
the  reconstruction  of  our  organic  laws  on  a  purely  demo- 
cratic basis,  the  disbandment  of  the  regular  army  in  its 
present  form,  civil  service  reform,  the  creation  of  indepen- 
dent municipalities  and  the  guarantee  of  self-government 
to  counties  and  towns  as  the  units  in  our  political  organism, 
and  the  removal  of  all  constitutional  courts  are  some  of  the 
political  measures  which  the  American  democracy,  to  pre- 
serve its  very  life,  is  called  upon  immediately  to  enact. 


CHAPTER  III 

;Moral  and  Social  Defects  and  Their  Causes 
section  i 

Materialism  and  the  Decline  of   Clerical   Authority. 

Changing  suddenly  from  pastoral  lite  to  industrialism, 
plunging  from  provincialism  into  the  vast  and  turbulent 
expanse  of  modern  culture,  turning  from  dogmatic  faith 
into  intellectual  progress,  altogether  unprepared  in  our 
moral  nature  and  condition  to  absorb  in  our  social  system 
millions  of  people  of  other  religions  and  races,  of  foreign 
thoughts  and  habits,  individuals  and  society  in  the  United 
States  broke  loose  from  the  moral  bonds  which  until  then 
had  guaranteed  an  honest  administration  of  public  ait'airs 
and  had  infused  all  private  relations  with  the  quality  next 
to  humanity,  equity. 

The  great  moral  lights  of  Puritan  theocracy  having  been 
befogged  by  sensationalism  approaching  sensualism,  Amer- 
ican society  was  wandering  guideless  in  the  wilderness  of 
business,  of  pleasure,  and  of  intrigue.  There  seemed  to  be 
no  difference  between  right  and  w^rong.  Riches  covered 
vice  and  crime  with  a  shining  veneer.  Anglo-Saxon  indi- 
vidualism turned  into  vulgar  and  cruel  selfishness,  the  dem- 
ocratic desire  to  accumulate  a  competency  into  an  insane 
desire  for  riches,  into  a  mad  chase  for  wealth  in  which 
every  one  trampled  on  the  rights  of  his  neighbor.  Success 
sanctioned  the  means  and,  in  politics  and  business,  was 
the  only  standard.  Of  course,  American  society  was  de- 
bauched, and  the  public  administration  demoralized.  The 
greatest  political  crimes  were  perpetrated  and  then  excused 
with  the  hypocritical  profession  of  having  obeyed  a  higher 
law.  The  theft  of  the  Presidency  in  1876,  the  theft  of  the 
legislature  of  New  York  in  1892,  the  Carnegie  frauds,  and 
the  shameless  corruption  of  Congress  passed  into  history, 
unpunished:  In  their  wake  followed  great  industrial  up- 
heavals when  the  masses  defied  law  and  order,  imitating  the 
lawless  examples  set  by  their  superiors  in  intellect  and 
position.     Corporations,  trusts  and  monopolies  defied  the 

156 


ANAKCHICAL  COXDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       157 

law,  avoided  its  penalties,  and  sneered  at  its  impoteney, 
giving  the  greatest  impetus  to  anarchy  and  lawlessness. 
While  money  was  made  king  and  god,  everything  else  was 
permitted  to  drift,  the  worst  elements  ruled,  and  party 
machines  supplanted  serious  political  conviction.  Under 
such  immoral  conditions  society  could  not  develop  honor  in 
the  abstract  and  replace  moral  theology  with  moral  philos- 
ophy as  the  spiritual  force  in  private  and  public  life. 
Therefore,  we  were  and  are  now  drifting  on  the  sea  of 
materialism  without  compass  and  rudder.  The  apathy 
of  despair  has  seized  the  cultured  and  the  patriot.  Steadily 
American  democracy  has  declined  and  a  terrible  denoue- 
ment appears  inevitable. 

Moving  fluids  seek  a  level.  So  do  the  affections  and 
passions  of  man.  The  builder  of  a  dam  for  the  collection  of 
a  large  body  of  water  carefully  constructs  an  outlet  that 
flowage  shall  not  wash  the  foundation.  He  also  provides 
marginal  strength  for  freshets,  but  he  cannot  guard  against 
the  hidden  forces  of  nature.  A  flood  of  extraordinary 
volume  or  a  light  concussion  of  the  earth  will  destroy  his 
structure.  Then  the  dammed  up  water  will  rush  forth  in 
a  foaming  and  roaring  mass,  destroying  the  works  of  man 
and  of  nature,  cutting  out  with  irresistible  force  its  course 
to  the  level. 

For  two  centuries  the  intellectual  energies  and  passions 
of  the  American  people  in  the  North  had  been  artificially 
restrained  by  Puritanism.  The  rigid  order  of  the  princi- 
ples of  its  construction  excluded  the  construction  of  outlets 
for  the  excess  of  animal  spirit  or  of  safety  valves  for  the 
effervescence  of  the  intellect.  Within  these  lines  of  separa- 
tion from  the  culture  of  the  world  mosaic  traditions  and  law 
regulated  all  the  functions  of  the  intellect  and  repressed 
the  emotions  with  the  spirit  of  mosaic  intolerance  and 
gloom.  In  such  a  society  there  could  be  no  incentives  to 
individual  efforts  to  reach  a  higher  nature.  The  intellect 
moved  within  fixed  limits,  the  affections  of  heart  and  soul 
were  stifled,  and  under  these  abnormal  conditions  of  society 
ossification  set  in,  and  the  body  politic  became  rigid.  The 
sense  of  justice,  and  of  right  and  wrong,  was  dimmed  be- 
cause society  was  reduced  to  the  plane  of  mere  legality, 
which  is  selfishness,  and  could  not  rise  to  the  sphere  of 
morals  where  the  solidarity  of  the  community  and  the  gen- 
eral well  being  outweigh  the  partial  good  of  the  individual. 


158  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"Wliile  Puritanism  improssetl  on  man  the  sacred  duties  of 
man  to  God  and  dwelled  on  the  rights  of  man,  it  failed  to 
enlarge  on  the  higher  duties  of  man  to  the  community  and 
to  teach  him  that  his  private  welfare  depends  upon  the  gen- 
era!  well  being,  and  that  he  best  ser\'es  himself  who  serves 
his  fellows  best.  Puritanism  developed  an  extreme  individ- 
ualism as  to  material  matters  exclusively  because  man  in 
his  conscience  w'as  only  responsible  to  God  and  the  sum  total 
of  his  duties  and  obligations  to  man  and  society  was  incor- 
porated in  the  mosaic  law,  which  demands  eye  for  eye,  tooth 
for  tooth,  and,  therefore,  excludes  the  humane,  the  only 
foundation  of  a  society  at  once  just  and  enlightened.  The 
only  protection  society  had  against  the  selfishness  of  man 
and  his  passions  was  obedience  to  the  mosaic  law,  in  which 
the  fundamental  element  in  the  humane,  the  religious  sense 
apprehending  a  higher  duty  to  man  and  society,  love,  is 
wanting. 

Puritan  society,  therefore,  could  not  develop  honor  in  the 
abstract  which  is  the  practical  application  of  this  religious 
sense  to  every  day  life.  The  one  virtue  was  wanting  which 
above  all  others  is  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  modem  so- 
ciety and  to  invest  its  government  with  a  system  of  rules 
equitable  in  action  and  in  harmony  with  the  ethics  of 
Christianity.  When  science  set  the  soul  of  men  free  from 
mosaic  tradition  the  stagnate  mass  of  intellectual  and  ani- 
mal energies  was  set  in  motion  and  the  flowage  washed  the 
foundation  of  the  dam.  The  immigration  of  the  German 
revolutionists  increased  the  emotion  to  turbulency.  Fi- 
nally, the  movement  against  slavery,  by  its  combined  intel- 
lectual and  emotional  forces,  undermined  the  foundation 
of  the  structure  because  it  assailed  an  institution  which  for 
centuries  had  been  defended  as  of  mosaic  origin  and  of 
divine  sanction. 

During  the  second  political  period  of  Puritanism,  which 
commenced  with  the  anti-slavery  agitation  and  closed  with 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  Puritan  theocracy  w'as  forced  to 
ally  itself  with  the  liberal  spirit  begotten  by  science.  Until 
then,  the  Puritan  clergy  had  been  the  keeper  of  the  con- 
science of  the  Northern  people  and  their  educators.  When 
the  spirit  of  scientific  research  reached  our  shore,  w^hen  the 
Holy  Ghost  spoke  in  modern  accents,  our  clergy  were  not 
prepared  to  lend  to  the  old  oracles  new  voices.  They 
closed  their  eyes  to  the  new  light ;  they  failed  to  apprehend 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       159 

the  new  phenomenon  as  the  culmination  of  the  Reformation, 
the  greatest  task  the  human  spirit  has  yet  achieved.  In 
the  seclusion  of  provincialism  and  with  an  imperfectly  de- 
velo-Ded  spiritual  nature  they  mistook  the  luminous  orb 
rising  on  our  horizon  for  the  false  sun  of  skepticism  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Completely  immersed  in  dogmatic 
faith  and  immobile  in  mind  and  soul,  under  the  austere 
discipline  of  the  mosaic  law,  the  Puritan  clergy  failed  to 
perceive  that  God 's  work  is  only  dark  for  want  of  light  and 
that  after  a  long  period  of  darkness  the  light  had  risen 
from  the  embers  of  the  Reformation  which  for  centuries  had 
been  Ij'ing  in  the  German  universities  smouldering  amid 
the  ashes  of  the  men  who  in  that  great  epoch  of  spiritual 
life  were  the  wonder  and  example  of  their  fellows. 

Our  ministers  lived  in  the  past  when  the  new  light  ap- 
peared to  US;  they  did  not  comprehend  its  qualities  and 
erred  as  to  its  intensity  and,  therefore,  were  not  qualified 
to  transmit  it  through  the  proper  lens  to  the  people.  Our 
ministry,  as  before,  was  terrible  in  its  earnestness  and  in 
its  denunciation  of  sin  but  unable  to  direct  under  the  new 
spiritual  conditions  the  intellectual  life  of  the  people  and 
consequently  were  gradually  deposed  as  the  wardens  of 
private  and  public  morals. 

Unfortunately  for  the  future  of  the  American  people, 
the  transitional  period  in  our  religious  and  intellectual  life 
was  too  short  for  a  sufficient  growth  of  the  learned  estate  to 
qualify  and  empower  it  for  the  mentorship  of  the  people 
and  for  the  construction  of  the  outlets  and  channels, 
through  which  the  pent-up  energies  and  passions  of  the 
people  could  take  their  proper  course  before  the  upheaval 
occurred  which  leveled  the  doctrinal  and  social  stricture 
of  Puritan  theocracy. 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion  set  free  the  dammed  up  energies 
of  the  people.  In  a  mighty  wave  they  rolled  southward. 
They  swept  slavery  from  the  land  and  leveled  the  social 
fabric  reared  thereon.  The  war  also  let  loose  the  passions 
so  long  pent  up  by  moral  theology  and  hidden  under  the 
mask  of  Puritan  austerity.  Heightened  by  the  furies  of  war 
and  freed  from  all  restraint  during  a  long  period  of  social 
revolution  the  passions  of  man  overpowered  the  common- 
wealth and  set  the  Northern  democracy  running  mad  after 
riches  and  pleasure.  Human  nature,  if  left  alone,  always 
wise  and  frugal,  had  for  centuries  been  confined  in  the  Puri- 


160  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

tan  strait-jacket  and  twisted  into  all  shapes  and  forms  to 
suit  the  prejudices  and  narrow  conformity  of  legislators 
and  minister  wiio,  as  the  Quaker  George  Bishop  expressed 
it  in  1703,  "shuffled  and  endeavored  to  evade  the  guilt  of 
intolerance  and  bigotry,  being  ashamed  to  own  it."  Sud- 
denly freed  from  the  fetters  of  orthodoxy,  human  nature 
committed  every  extravagance  and  bounded  from  extreme 
to  extreme. 

After  the  war  the  ministers  vainly  attempted  to  regain 
their  authoritative  position  in  American  society.  Indus- 
trialism, the  rapid  growth  of  cities,  the  large  volume  of  the 
immigration,  the  ever  extending  exchange  of  ideas  with 
Europe,  the  increase  in  wealth,  and  the  persistent  refusal 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to  recognize  the  changed  condi- 
tions in  the  intellectual  and  social  life  of  the  people  were 
the  principal  agencies  which  made  all  clerical  efforts  futile. 

During  the  great  financial  crisis  which  had  its  moral 
effects  on  the  people  an  authoritative  position  might  have 
been  partly  regained  but  for  the  "Beecher  trial,"  which 
affected  American  society  more  deeply  than  the  "Neckless- 
scandal ' '  that  of  France  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Thence- 
forward, clerical  influence  has  steadily  receded,  and  intel- 
lectually and  socially  society  has  drifted  towards  anarchism. 
The  relations  of  clergy  and  people  at  present  are  permeated 
by  a  sickly  sentimentalism  encroached  upon  by  mercenary 
considerations,  almost  helpless  indigence  on  the  one  side, 
indifference  and  often  arrogant  assumption  on  the  other. 

The  fact  is,  the  Church  has  ceased  to  be  in  touch  with 
the  people.  A  clergy  that  does  not  participate  in  the  com- 
mon activities  of  the  world  cannot  labor  intelligently  or 
exercise  any  influence  in  a  society  which  is  struggling  on- 
ward under  a  new  light  entirely  different  from  that  which 
guided  the  Church  fathers  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  con- 
servative element  within  the  nation,  unable  to  fathom  the 
depth  and  to  measure  the  velocity  of  the  new  spiritual  cur- 
rent, attempted  to  stem  it  with  "isms"  of  many  kinds,  with 
the  enforcement  of  obsolete  laws  of  the  glacial  period  of 
Puritanism,  with  a  revival  of  Knownothingism  and  by  a 
general  persecution  of  every  thought  and  innovation  which 
intolerance  and  a  dwarfed  intellect  conceived  to  be  of  de- 
structive tendency.  It  was  the  last  struggle  of  a  dying 
cause  which  had  fulfilled  its  mission. 

All  these  counter-movements  were  relics  of  the  sterile, 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       161 

forbidding,  unproductive  period  of  Puritanism,  of  its  ice- 
age  from  which  they  had  drifted  until  now  they  have 
reached  the  Gulf  Stream  of  modern  culture.  The  defend- 
ers and  advocates  of  the  past  could  not  perceive  that  scien- 
tific researcli  and  modern  culture,  flowing  westward  to  our 
shores,  were  to  save  American  society  from  the  fate  of  other 
lands,  as  of  Spain,  from  the  consequences  of  superstition, 
prejudice,  and  narrow  conformity,  and  that  another  cen- 
tury of  seclusion  from  the  world's  progress  and  culture 
would  have  caused  American  society  to  develop  in  an  ab- 
normal condition  and  might  have  made  of  the  American 
people  a  nation  in  many  traits  similar  to  the  Jews  who, 
through  clanishness  and  environments,  were  for  more  than 
2000  years  intellectually  and  socially  separated  from  the 
civilization  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

SECTION  II 

The  Social  Results  of  the  Florescent  Period  of  Puritan- 
ism. The  War  of  the  Rebellion  interrupted  the  florescent 
period  of  Puritanism.  It  cannot  strictly  be  called  a  scien- 
tific period  because  science  can  secure  no  lasting  foothold  in 
a  cultured  community  as  yet  under  the  influence  of  super- 
stition and  prejudice  and  encompassed  with  a  public  opinion 
drawing  its  inspiration  from  ancient  lore. 

The  florescent  period  of  Puritanism  would  eventually 
have  brought  forth  conditions  which  we  find  to-day  in  the 
world  of  Judaism :  the  masses  remaining  superstitious  and 
in  conformity  with  mosaic  law  while  the  emancipated  or 
educated  are  gradually  drifting  away  from  their  people  into 
intellectual  anarchism  without  consciousness  of  self  or  of  a 
community  to  be  guided  and  preserved. 

The'  history  of  the  men  most  prominent  during  the 
florescent  period  of  Puritanism  and  of  those  drawing  inspir- 
ation therefrom  proves  conclusively  that  it  was  not  a 
scientific  period  but  rather  one  of  sentiments,  relics  of 
the  transcendental  period  in  politics.  Most  of  these  minds 
lost  themselves  in  an  aimless  rationalism  and  in  the  end 
became  cranks,  while  others,  the  most  gifted  of  the  circle, 
became  reactionists  of  the  most  contemptible  kind,  lastly 
finding  a  resting  place  in  Jesuitism.  To  these  people  must 
be  credited  much  of  the  fantastical  legislation  for  the  ameli- 
oration of  mankind.  The  notion  of  every  crank  and  the 
evaporations  of  every  hysterical  woman  were  considered  the 


162  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

outpourings  of  philosophie^il  minds  and  were  forthwith 
enacted  into  statutes  until  the  cause  of  humanity  was  buried 
under  a  heap  of  rubbish. 

In  many  cases  the  people  parted  with  their  sovereignty 
to  entrust  all  kinds  of  societies  with  the  execution  of  laws 
for  carrying  out  the  vagaries  of  only  partially  disciplined 
minds,  to  serve  a  sickly  sentimentality,  or  the  desire  for 
notoriety  of  so-called  humanitarians  who  in  truth  were  as  a 
rule  selfish  and  hypocritical  fellows.  Thus  we  were  made 
the  laughing  stock  of  the  civilized  world  that,  by  degrees, 
was  forced  to  consider  the  American  Republic  a  bedlam, 
where  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  crass  ignorance  and  confu- 
sion of  ideas  prevailed. 

The  rule  of  science  is  onlj^  possible  in  a  community  in 
which  at  least  one  generation  has  received  an  education 
based  on  scientific  principles  and  where  public  opinion,  free 
from  all  superstition  and  prejudice,  has  its  source  in  the 
ethics  of  the  Reformation.  The  florescent  period  of  Puri- 
tanism left  no  token  of  a  covenant  with  science  but  a  con- 
fusion of  ideas  and  a  few  choice  spirits  now^  serving  in  the 
synagogue  of  the  devil.  It  failed  to  influence  public  educa- 
tion and,  therefore,  failed  to  impress  public  life  with  its 
character. 

SECTION   III 

The  School  and  the  Family — the  Safeguards  and 
Nutriment  of  Democracy.  Our  system  of  public  educa- 
tion is  far  behind  the  requirements  of  modern  times.  Ig- 
norance, prejudice,  or  provincialism  of  the  narrowest  kind 
will  alone  dispute  the  fact.  With  a  very  few-  local  excep- 
tions, it  Ls  not  based  on  scientific  principles,  it  does  not 
develop  the  mind  of  the  pupil,  or  the  affections  of  heart  or 
soul. 

In  the  first  stages  of  education,  when  mind  and  character 
ought  to  be  properly  developed,  the  pupil  is  under  the  intel- 
lectual and  ethical  direction  of  verj^  young  and  inexperi- 
enced women  hardly  qualified  as  teachers,  certainly  not  as 
educators.  As  moral  teachings  we  impress  mechanically 
on  the  child's  memory  a  certain  quantity  of  dogmatic  lore. 
We  do  not  plant  into  its  heart  and  soul  the  ethics  of  Chris- 
tianity, of  the  Reformation,  and  of  its  race.  Leaving 
school,  the  child  possesses  a  superficial  knowledge,  often 
more  harmful  than  good,  and  not  the  moral  sustenance  of 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       163 

life  to  qualify  it  for  civic  duties  and  for  the  exercise  of  the 
amenities  of  life. 

Our  legislators  adopted  laws  restricting  the  authority  of 
the  parent  and  teacher.  Rationalism  turned  into  madness 
when  it  assailed  the  very  foundation  of  Teutonic  or  Chris- 
tian civilization,  the  autonomy  of  the  family  and  in  and 
with  parental  authority  the  authority  of  the  State  in  its 
first  application  to  the  child's  mind.  Our  children  are, 
therefore,  growing  up  without  moral  guidance  and  with- 
out fixed  principles.  Generations  have  been  drifting  into 
brutishness  until  it  has  grown  into  a  national  vice,  sup- 
pressing the  humane  in  private  and  public  life.  A  people 
who  suffer  corruption  and  brutality  to  enter  their  chari- 
table institutions  and  who  pay  homage  to  a  pugilist  and 
extol  his  acts  as  national  virtues  must  be  far  removed 
from  the  humane.  A  system  of  education  which  has  not 
for  its  objective  point  the  intellectual  and  moral  autonomy 
of  the  scholar  can  never  produce  citizens  fitted  for  the 
privileges  and  duties  of  a  democracy.  Nor  can  universi- 
ties which  do  not  turn  out  men  of  broad  general  culture, 
free  from  every  taint  of  superstition,  prejudice,  and  brutish- 
ness, furnish  the  leaders  and  master  minds  in  a  democratic 
communit}^  which  has  outgrown  the  fables  of  mosaic  tra- 
dition. 

Of  all  failures  properly  to  apply  the  extraordinary 
blessings  which  Providence  bestowed  on  us,  the  greatest  and 
probably  the  one  most  disastrous  to  our  economic  and  polit- 
ical future  is  that  w^e  did  not  develop  a  system  of  education 
the  highest  in  all  appointments  and  conceived  in  the  eternal 
spirit.  We  might  then  have  developed  the  divinity  latent 
in  the  child's  soul  and,  instead  of  a  narrow  provincialism, 
an  American  ideal,  universal  humanity.  This  must  be  our 
goal,  that  the  American  democracy  may  live  and  prosper 
and  perform  the  part  assigned  to  her  by  Providence. 

Teutonic  civilization  is  rooted  in  the  family.  So  is  true 
or  modern  democracy.  They  are  one  and  inseparable  be- 
cause the  family  is  the  unit  in  each.  Therefore,  the 
destruction  of  the  family  means  the  destruction  of  society, 
or  anarchy.  Within  a  generation  our  cranks  and  ignorant 
lawmakers  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  loosen  the  family 
ties.  They  have  restricted  the  authority  of  the  father  and 
husband  until  his  social  position  is  merely  that  of  the  bread- 
winner.    Irresponsible  societies  of  cranks  and  sensational- 


164  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ists  have  been  clothed  with  the  authority  of  the  people  to 
destroy  the  very  foundation  of  our  civilization  and  of 
deraocracy :  the  sense  of  responsibility  attached  to  the  fam- 
ily and  therewith,  in  the  individual,  the  moral  sense  of  sub- 
ordination to  the  community  of  which  the  family  is  the 
responsible  part.  Our  lawmakers  have  cut  deeply  into  the 
sacred  ties  of  love,  duty,  and  allegiance  between  husband 
and  wife  when  they  intei*posed  in  their  relations  the 
principle  of  legal  severality  in  person  and  estate.  Where 
there  are  separate  rights,  responsibility  is  divided,  unity  of 
purpose  cannot  exist,  or  moral  interdependence  prevail, 
consequently  there  can  be  no  complete  trust  in  each  other 
which  is  the  source  of  harmony  and  self-sacrifice  in  married 
life.  Should  the  agitation  of  the  woman  suffrage  question 
ever  lead  to  the  general  political  emancipation  of  woman, 
American  society  would  be  threatened  with  disintegration 
and  American  democracy  with  decay  and  death  because 
the  family  ties  would  be  disrupted  and  the  binding  element 
in  Teutonic  civilization  destroyed.  It  would  soon  appear 
that  the  political  emancipation  of  woman  and  the  downfall 
of  democracy  stand  in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect. 

SECTION   IV 

The  Handv^rriting  on  the  Wall.  Unfortunately  in  the 
years  of  our  prosperity  no  second  Joseph  advised  us  of  a 
coming  change  in  our  economic  and  social  conditions  and 
counselled  the  measures  to  prevent  misery  and  misfor- 
tunes. The  storehouses  of  nature  are  nearly  exhausted. 
No  longer  will  we  be  able  to  nourish  our  democratic  body 
so  that  by  indulgence  and  pleasure  the  mental  and  physical 
ills  may  be  forgotten. 

There  are  many  forebodings  of  a  steady  retrogression  in 
national  prosperity.  We  have  wasted  the  gifts  of  nature. 
Now  we  must  bear  the  punishment  or  quickly  and  unre- 
servedly change  the  artificial  evils  besetting  our  social 
organism  into  the  blessings  which  Providence  intended  for 
us.  The  truth  is  that  the  misfortunes  which  now  are  fall- 
ing upon  us  are  blessings  in  disguise.  We  needed  a  shock ; 
we  needed  to  be  reminded  of  our  dutj',  of  what  American 
democracy  has  been,  is  now,  and  should  be.  If  we  profit 
by  the  lesson  which  nature  with  punitive  and  yet  benign 
hand  teaches  us,  the  shock,  rude  as  it  is,  may  prove  our 


ANARCHICAL  CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY       165 

salvation,  and  cause  the  deliverance  of  the  American  de- 
mocracy. 

Tnrough  suffering  we  may  yet  enter  without  external 
violence  and  disorder  into  a  higher  state  of  civilization,  into 
an  era  of  gradual  progression,  into  a  new  social  order  in 
wliich  humanity  Avill  replace  materialism,  that  we  may  ful- 
fill the  mission  with  which  Providence  charged  us  in  the 
land  of  plenty.  But  it  seems  decreed  that  like  Israel  we 
shall  have  to  wander  in  the  desert  until  we  destroy  the 
golden  calf  and  cease  to  worship  Baal. 

That  empire  must  decline 

Whose  chief  supports  and  sinews  are  but  coin. 


FART  V 
PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Character  and  Growth  of  the  Roman 
Establishment 

section  i 

The  Roman  Question  a  Political  Question  of  Racial 
Complexion.  The  history  of  the  Christian  nations  of 
Europe  during  the  period  of  Papal  supremacy  teaches  that 
to  compromise  with  Papism  is  not  possible;  that  it  is  an 
institution  hostile  to  Teutonic  civilization  and  therefore  to 
democracy. 

Romanism  has  gained  a  firm  foothold  on  American  soil 
and  thereon  has  enlarged,  in  an  aggressive  and  defiant 
spirit,  into  a  State  within  a  State,  forgetting  its  province 
in  an  Anglo-Saxon  and  democratic  community  and  threat- 
ening the  stability  of  American  institutions.  The  question 
arises,  what  shall  be  the  policy  of  the  American  democracy 
towards  the  Papacy  and  its  adherents. 

The  Seven- Years'  War  destroyed  the  French  Empire 
in  North  America,  and  the  peace  of  "Ruppertsburg"  dedi- 
cated it  to  Teutonic  civilization,  that  is  to  Protestantism. 
During  the  race-struggle  on  the  North  American  continent, 
the  Protestant  settlers  of  the  North,  much  to  the  surprise 
and  chagrin  of  the  English  government,  had  captured 
"Louisburg"  and  through  this  heroic  act  were,  then  and 
there,  anticipating  the  historical  verdict  of  the  peace  of 
"Ruppertsburg."  It  was  then  the  sense  of  the  Thirteen 
Colonies  as  it  was,  later  on,  the  sense  of  the  Minute  men 
who  raised  the  first  flag  of  Independence  inscribed  "No 
Popery"  that  the  North  American  continent  should  be  the 
home  of  Teutonic  civilization,  that  Latin  civilization  should 
not  gain  a  permanent  foothold  thereon  and  that  America 
should  be  ruled  by  Americans  and  not  by  a  foreign  prince, 
ecclesiastical   or   temporal.     God   showed   his  beneficence 

166 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        167 

toward  America  by  not  permitting  Latin  civilization  to 
gain  a  strong  foothold  here  until  the  Teutonic  civilization 
was  firmly  established.  The  splendid  organization  of 
American  democracy  and  the  unparalleled  development  of 
the  material  resources  of  the  country  testify  to  the  bless- 
ings of  freedom  from  superstition  and  foreign  rule  and  to 
the  great  moral  energy  of  the  prevailing  forces,  which 
were  Saxon  or  Teutonic — not  Latin. 

Therefore,  in  reverence  to  the  past,  in  justice  to  the 
future,  and  in  all  reason  the  conclusion  must  be  that  the 
United  States,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  shall  remain 
exclusively  under  the  influences  of  Teutonic  civilization  and 
that  all  agencies  hostile  to  it  must  be  either  suppressed  or 
kept  within  reasonable  bounds.  Consequently,  whenever 
Teutonic  civilization  is  assailed  by  religious  and  political 
agencies,  their  treatment  by  democracy  ceases  to  be  a. 
question  of  mere  tolerance  or  intolerance  and  becomes,  at 
once,  of  the  most  vital  import  to  her  very  existence. 

In  a  crisis  for  the  life  of  a  nation,  whether  spiritual  or 
material,  the  guiding  principle  must  be  drawn  from  the 
history  of  the  nation,  from  the  ethics  of  the  race.  For 
instance,  had  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  placed  their 
government  on  the  basis  of  tolerance  to  all  sorts  of  con- 
sciences and  submitted  to  the  aggressions  of  the  crown  or 
any  other  foreign  agency,  the  American  republic  would 
never  have  been  born.  They  kept  the  commonwealth  un- 
contaminated  and  in  a  compact  condition  encompassed  by 
the  traditions  of  their  race  and,  so  far  as  they  found  expres- 
sion in  their  creed,  by  its  ethics.  Thus  they  established 
successfully  their  civilization  and  the  Reformation.  As 
bigots  they  triumphed,  as  jelly  fishes  they  would  have  suc- 
cumbed. 

Meanwhile  the  world  has  progressed,  circumstances  have 
changed.  What  then  was  a  matter  of  stern  discipline,  of 
persecution,  and  even  of  the  executioner's  province  is  now 
a  matter  of  education  and  of  the  proper  exercise  or  rather 
restriction  of  the  franchise.  In  fact,  to-day,  the  most 
powerful  agency  for  the  preservation  of  Teutonic  civiliza- 
tion on  American  soil  is  Protestantism  and  democracy, 
strong  and  undefiled,  always  aggressive  and  progressive. 

The  Romish  question  in  the  United  States  is  not  a  re- 
ligious question.  Though  Romanism  has  ceased  to  be  a 
harbinger  of  the   ethics  of   Christianity   its  status   as  a 


168  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

religious  community,  in  a  republic  granting  the  right  of 
free  worship  to  all  religions  and  tolerating  all  kinds  of 
opinions,  cannot  be  assailed — except  for  treasonable 
practices. 

The  Romish  question  in  the  United  States  is  a  political 
question  of  racial  complexion.  It  is  a  question  whether 
Americans  shall  continue  to  rule  America  or  whether  a 
church-head  resident  beyond  the  sea,  and  a  dependent 
hierarchy,  in  its  personnel  mostly  foreign  to  our  race, 
shall  assume  the  control  of  our  alt'airs. 

It  is  a  question  whether  Teutonic  civilization  shall  be 
supplanted  by  Latin  civilization  and  ichether  tJie  Pope, 
driven  from  Europe,  shall  establish  within  the  United 
States  another  ecclesiastical  State,  another  stronghold  of 
superstition  and  priestly  domain. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  Roman  camarilla  shall 
acquire,  hold,  and  use  property  without  limit  as  it  did  in 
England  before  the  statutes  of  mortmain  were  enacted. 
Blackstone  says  that,  but  for  these  statutes,  ecclesiastical 
corporations  would  soon  have  engulfed  the  whole  real 
estate  of  England.  With  all  these  precautions  confisca- 
tion was  necessary  to  insure  the  prosperity  of  the  realm. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  masses  shall  fall  back  into 
idolatry,  superstition,  ignorance,  and  misery,  when  anarchy 
will  supersede  law  and  order  and  our  blessed  country  will 
share  the  fate  of  Spain. 

It  is  a  question  whether  civil  strife,  religious  persecution, 
and  the  iniquities  of  the  inquisition  shall  replace  the  orderly 
advance  in  ideas  and  ideals  of  the  great  American  democ- 
racy, toward  the  Church  universal  and  the  realization  of 
the  essence  of  life,  love,  freedom,  duty. 

These  questions  were  made  the  burden  of  solemn  con- 
jurations and  prophecies  by  Washington,  Lafayette  and 
Grant.  The  first  said :  ' '  Against  the  insidious  \\dles  of 
foreign  influence — I  conjure  you  to  believe  me,  fellow 
citizens — the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be  con- 
stantly awake ;  since  history  and  experience  prove  that 
foreign  influence  is  one  of  the  most  harmful  foes  of  repub- 
lican government." 

General  Lafayette  from  Roman  Catholic  France,  speak- 
ing of  the  future  of  the  young  American  republic  which 
he  helped  to  establish,  said:  "If  the  liberties  of  America 
are  destroyed,  it  will  be  by  the  priests  and  nuns." 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        169 

General  Grant  said :  "  If  we  are  to  have  another  contest 
in  the  near  future  of  our  national  existence,  I  predict  that 
the  dividing  line  will  not  be  Mason  and  Dixon,  but  it  will 
be  between  patriotism  and  intelligence  on  one  side  and 
superstition,  ambition,  and  ignorance,  on  the  other.  Keep 
the  Church  and  the  State  forever  separate." 

SECTION   n 

The  Papal  Army  and  Papal  Power.  Already  a  State 
within  the  State  has  been  built  up :  a  State  with  an  auto- 
cratic form  of  government.  Its  officers  are  appointed  by 
a  foreign  ruler.  They  hold  office  at  his  pleasure.  This 
autocratic  ruler,  the  Pope,  claims  both  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral jurisdiction  over  sixteen  millions  of  our  people, 
that  is,  he  demands  from  them — bishop,  priest,  and  layman 
— absolute  obedience  in  all  matters  spiritual  and  temporal. 
The  dogma  of  the  infallibility  and  the  constitution  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  this  country  enforce  such  obedience. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff  as  the  ruler  of  this  State  within 
the  State  exercises  a  more  unrestrained  authority  in  this 
country  than  he  does  in  the  Catholic  countries  of  Europe, 
where,  by  the  stipulations  of  concordats,  he  is  deprived  of 
the  power  to  nominate  bishops.  The  bishops  of  this  coun- 
try may,  therefore,  be  said  to  be  more  directly  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Vatican  than  the  bishops  in  any  other 
jurisdiction.  In  other  words,  they  are  the  pro-consuls  of 
the  Pontifcx  Maximus.  The  Papal  authority  is  unre- 
stricted, because  the  bishops,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  this  country,  are  responsible  for  the 
administration  of  their  diocese,  not  to  those  whom  they  are 
charged  to  govern  or  to  the  worldly  authorities,  but  to  the 
sovereign  Pontiff,  and  to  those  to  whom  he  delegates  his 
authority.  The  property  owned  by  said  State  within  the 
State  is  held  in  fee  simple  by  the  bishops.  Therefore,  it  is 
held  and  owned  by  the  Pope,  the  autocratic  ruler  of  said 
state.  I-Ie  may  draw  the  revenues  from  this  property,  or 
he  may  order  its  sale  and  pocket  the  proceeds.  In  fact, 
to-day,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff'  is  the  largest  landowner  in 
the  United  States  and  his  State,  within  them,  is  an  Asiatic 
despotism.  Let  us  hear  what  Catholic  authorities  in  the 
United  States  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  Catholic  Church 
said  on  this  matter.  Monsignor  Preston,  a  converted  Amer- 
ican minister  and  Vicar-General  of  the  Arch-diocese  of 


170  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

New    York,    in    a   sermon    preached    to    his    congregation 
shortly  before  an  election,  said : 

"Every  word  Leo  speaks  from  his  chair  is  the  voice  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  must  be  obeyed.  To  every  Catholic 
heart  comes  no  thought  but  obedience.  It  is  said  that  pol- 
ities is  not  within  the  province  of  the  Church,  and  that  the 
Church  has  only  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  faith.  You  say, 
*I  will  receive  my  faith  from  the  Pontiff,  but  I  will  not 
receive  my  politics  from  him.'  This  assertion  is  disloyal 
and  untruthful.  .  .  .  You  must  not  think  as  you  choose, 
you  must  think  as  Catholics.  The  man  who  says,  'I  will 
take  my  faith  from  Peter,  but  I  will  not  take  yny  politics 
from  Peter,'  is  not  a  true  Catholic.  The  Church  teaches  us 
that  the  Supreme  Pontiff  must  be  obeyed,  because  he  is  the 
Vicar  of  the  Lord;  Christ  speaks  through  him." 

Bishop  Gilmour  of  Cleveland,  0.,  in  a  Lenten  letter,  said : 
"Nationalities  must  be  subordinate  to  religion,  and  we 
must  learn  that  ive  are  Catholics  first  and  Amcricayi  citizens 
next.     God  is  above  men,  and  the  Church  above  the  State." 

In  a  work  prepared  by  the  Rev.  F.  I.  Schuppe  for  Roman 
Catholic  schools  and  colleges,  bearing  the  imprimatur  of 
Cardinal  Manning,  and  used  extensively  in  American 
Catholic  schools  and  colleges,  we  read,  page  278:  ''The 
civil  laws  are  binding  on  the  conscience  only  so  long  as  they 
are  conformable  to  the  rights  of  the  Catholic  Church." 

Dr.  0.  A.  Brownson,  one  of  the  highest  Roman  Catholic 
authorities  in  America,  says:  "Protestantism  of  every 
form,  has  not  and  can  never  have  any  right  where  Catho- 
licism is  triumphant." 

In  the  "Pontificale  Romanum"  is  the  Bishop's  oath,  in 
which  occur  these  words:  "Heretics,  schismatics,  and 
rebels  against  our  said  Lord  or  His  successors  I  will,  to  my 
utmast,  persecute  (persequar),  and  oppose." 

In  a  work  on  the  policy  of  the  Vatican,  for  which  the 
author,  "M.  Louis  Venillot,"  a  distinguished  French  dog- 
matic writer,  received  the  special  benediction  of  the  Pope, 
it  is  stated:  "When  there  is  a  Protestant  majority  we 
claim  religious  liberty  because  such  is  their  principle,  but 
when  we  are  in  the  majority  we  refuse  it,  because  that  is 
ours." 

Pius  IX,  on  December  8,  1864,  published  an  Encyclical 
Letter,  condemning  as  errors  eighty  of  the  leading  and 
ruling  principles  of  modern  civilization.     The  statements 


1»APAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        171 

and  coudemnations  contained  in  this  Letter  are  a  part  of 
the  Catholic  faith  and  must  be  obeyed  and  carried  into 
effect  by  every  good  Catholic  as  the  truths  and  orders  of 
God's  vicar.  We  quote  the  statements  having  reference  to 
the  relations  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to  the  civil 
authorities  and  to  republican  institutions,  but  while  in  the 
Encyclical  the  principles  condemned  are  stated  negatively 
we  shall  state  them  in  positive  form,  since  that  will  serve  to 
more  clearly  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Church. 
The  contentions  of  Rome,  affirmatively  stated,  are: 

(39)   The  people  are  not  the  source  of  civil  power. 

(19)  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  a  right  to  exercise 
its  authority,  without  having  any  limits  set  to  it  by  the  civil 
power. 

(24)  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  the  right  to  avail 
itself  of  force,  and  to  use  the  temporal  power  for  that 
purpose. 

(26)  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  an  innate  and 
legitimate  right  to  acquire,  hold,  and  use  property  without 
limit  free  from  all  taxation. 

(27)  The  Pope  and  the  priests  ought  to  have  dominion 
over  temporal  affairs. 

(30)  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  her  ecclesiastics 
have  a  right  to  immunity  from  civil  law. 

(31)  The  Roman  Catholic  clergy  should  be  tried  for  civil 
and  criminal  offenses  only  in  ecclesiastical  courts. 

(42)  In  case  of  conflict  between  the  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  powers,  the  ecclesiastical  power  ought  to  prevail. 

(53)  The  civil  power  has  no  right  to  assist  persons  to 
regain  their  freedom  who  have  once  adopted  a  religious  life ; 
that  is  become  priests,  monks  or  nuns. 

(54)  The  civil  power  is  inferior  and  subordinate  to  the 
ecclesiastical  power,  and  in  litigated  questions  of  jurisdic- 
tion must  yield  to  it. 

(55)  Church  and  State  should  be  united. 

(78)  The  Roman  Catholic  religion  should  be  the  only 
religion  of  the  State,  and  all  other  modes  of  worship  should 
be  excluded. 

(45)  The  Roman  Church  has  the  right  to  interfere  in  the 
discipline  of  the  public  schools,  and  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  studies  of  the  public  schools,  and  in  the  choice  of  the 
teachers  for  these  schools. 

(47)  Public  schools  open  to  all  children  for  the  educa- 


172  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

tion  of  the  younp:  should  he  untlor  the  control  of  the  Roman 
Church,  and  should  not  be  subject  to  the  civil  power,  nor 
made  to  conform  to  the  opinions  of  the  age. 

(48)  While  teaching  primarily  the  knowledge  of  natural 
things,  the  public  schools  must  not  be  separated  from  the 
faith  and  power  of  the  Roman  Church. 

In  his  Encyclical  on  American  affairs,  dated  January  5, 
1895,  Leo  XIII,  confirms  the  position  of  Pius  IX  on  all 
these  points,  claiming  such  authority  "not  by  an  adven- 
titious but  an  inherent  right." 

SECTION    HI 

The  Papal  Invasion  and  Usurpation  of  Sovereignty. 
Every  article  of  faith  set  forth  in  the  Encyclical  Letter  of 
Pius  IX  and  every  declaration  of  the  Romish  authorities 
of  modern  times  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  principles  on 
which  the  great  American  Republic  is  reared.  These 
articles  and  doctrines  are  now,  as  they  were  six  hundred 
years  ago,  hostile  to  Teutonic  civilization  which  is  the 
foundation  of  our  democratic  institutions,  the  very  life- 
blood  of  our  body  politic.  A  religious  system  which  thus 
contravenes  the  first  principles  of  our  political  system  is  a 
standing  menace  to  the  republic. 

This  religious  system  embraces  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States  about  three  and  one-half  million  voters, 
principally  of  the  Latin  and  Celtic  races.  It  embraces 
the  most  ignorant,  the  most  superstitious,  and  the  most 
brutish  of  our  population.  They  are  organized  for  defen- 
sive and  offensive  purposes  under  a  leadersliip  absolutely 
dependent  on  a  foreign  power  and  slavishly  submissive  to 
it,  sworn  to  persecute  all  fellow  citizens  of  another  faith, 
and  to  promote,  first  of  all,  the  policy  of  an  ecclesiastical 
court  with  interests  of  an  international  character,  the  very 
existence  of  which  demands  the  destruction  of  Teutonic 
civilization  and  of  religious  systems  and  of  every  polit- 
ical organism  evolved  therefrom.  This  element  of  our  pop- 
ulation is  blindly  under  the  despotic  leadership  of  a 
religious-political  order  which  has  been  the  curse  of 
Christendom  and  assails  humanity  with  the  motto:  "the  end 
justifies  the  means." 

War  is  a  forcible  interference  with  the  affairs  of  a  nation 
either  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  assailing  parties  or 
for  the  enforcement  of  changes  in  the  national  life  of  the 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        173 

party  assailed.  It  has  always  been  held  that  every  interfer- 
ence with  the  internal  atfairs  of  a  nation  is  a  good  and 
valid  cause  for  a  declaration  of  war  and  for  patriotism  to 
exert  itself  in  the  defense  of  the  nation's  property  and 
institutions.  Whether  such  interference  is  by  armed  forces 
or  by  armies  of  voters  matters  not,  the  principle  is  one  of 
hostile  intervention. 

In  a  democracy,  the  stability  of  all  institutions  essential 
to  freedom  and  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  people 
depends  on  the  maintenance  of  the  principle  that  the 
people  are  the  source  of  all  civil  power  and  on  the  free  and 
unrestricted  exercise  of  the  franchise.  AA'^hoever,  there- 
fore, denies  this  principle  and  attempts  to  control  the 
franchise  in  contradiction  of  this  principle,  or  exercises  the 
franchise  in  the  interest  of  any  power  or  person  denying 
this  principle,  commits  an  act  of  treason,  and  any  foreign 
person  or  power  sanctioning  or  instigating  such  interfer- 
ence Avith  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  democratic 
government,  and  the  perversion  of  the  franchise,  commits 
an  act  of  war.  Such  were  the  views  of  the  Father  of  our 
countr}%  of  Jefferson,  of  Jackson,  of  Lincoln,  of  every  ad- 
ministration loyal  to  democracy;  they  were  quickly  and 
emphatically  enforced  when  the  British  resident-minister, 
]\Ir.  Sackville-West,  for  a  mere  indiscretion  in  this  direc- 
tion was  very  summarily  furnished  with  his  passport. 

Now,  what  are  the  relations  of  the  Romish  Church  to  the 
great  American  Republic?  The  Pope  and  his  bishops  in 
this  country  deny  that  the  people  are  the  source  of  all  civil 
power.  They  maintain  that  the  infallible  Pontiff  as  the 
vicar  of  Christ  is  the  source  of  all  civil  power;  that  the 
people  are  not  the  sovereigns  and  are  only  entitled  to  so 
much  power,  spiritual  and  temporal,  as  the  Pontiff  chooses 
to  grant.  In  other  words,  the  Pontiff  arrogates  to  himself 
all  the  powers  of  government,  both  spiritual  and  temporal, 
and  consequently  the  right  to  use  force,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, to  get  possession  of  the  powers  of  government.  Such 
is  the  logic  of  his  assumed  position  as  the  infallible  repre- 
sentative of  the  Deity  or  rather  as  the  incarnation  thereof. 

Through  his  officers,  the  bishops  and  priests,  the  Pontiff 
admonishes  and  orders  the  Roman  Catholic  voters  of  our 
republic  to  exercise  the  franchise  in  violation  of  and 
against  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government  in 
the  interest  of  a  foreign  government  which  claims  suprem- 


174    *^  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

acy  over  all  the  governments  of  the  earth  and  intends  to 
tiisplace  our  institutions  by  stratagem  and  to  substitute  its 
own  clerical  despotism.  Through  his  officers,  bishops,  and 
priests,  the  Pontifif  incites  the  native  born  Roman  Catholic 
voters  of  our  republic  to  rebellion,  to  disobedience  to  the 
laws  of  the  country  and  to  disloyalty  when  he  demands 
from  them  to  take  their  politics  from  him  and  to  vote  as  he 
directs.  He  demands  from  all  naturalized  Roman  Catholic 
citizens  obedience  to  the  canon  law:  "No  oaths  are  to  be 
kept  if  they  are  against  the  interests  of  the  Church  of 
Rome;  they  are  not  to  be  called  oaths,  but  perjuries,"  and, 
therefore,  commands  perjury  and  the  violation  of  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  republic.  In  all  these  commands  and 
demands  the  Pontiff  commits  acts  of  war.  The  Romish 
bishops  and  priests  in  this  country  are  the  emissaries  of  a 
foreign  power  in  actual  war  with  the  republic.  All  Roman 
Catholic  voters  loyal  to  the  Pontiff,  in  a  legal  sense,  are 
traitors  to  the  republic  and  as  such  have  forfeited  all  rights 
and  privileges  of  citizenship  and  should  lose  their  sover- 
eignty. It  is  only  a  matter  of  opportunity  and  of  time 
when  they  will  be  traitors  de  facto. 

Dealing  with  Romanism  the  American  democracy  meets 
a  foreign  power  having  gained  a  lodgment  on  American 
soil,  a  powder  hostile  to  our  civilization,  to  our  religion,  and 
to  democratic  institutions.  In  fact,  the  American  democ- 
racy is  called  upon  to  repel  a  hostile  invasion  and  a  rebel- 
lion much  more  formidable  and  dangerous  to  the  Union 
than  that  of  the  slavocracy  has  been.  The  establishment 
of  a  Papal  vice-regency  at  Washington  was  the  first  act  of 
a  drama  of  war  between  Romanism  and  Latinism  on  the 
one  side  and  Protestantism  and  Americanism  or  Teutonism 
on  the  other;  it  was  the  first  move  by  Leo  XIII  to  realize 
the  wonderful  scheme  of  saving  the  Papacy  by  transplant- 
ing it  to  the  United  States  and  to  supplant  their  democratic 
government,  should  the  opportunity  offer,  with  that  of 
Romish  theocracy. 

Public  war  is  the  condition  now  existing  between  the 
American  democracy  and  the  Papacy.  ]\Iorally  and  polit- 
ically such  must  be  our  standpoint  in  the  treatment  of  the 
Romish  question.  There  is  no  compromise  possible.  It  is 
a  fight  to  the  finish.  It  is  either  surrender  to  a  foreign 
power  and  the  substitution  of  another  civilization  or  the 
suppression  of  the  treasonable  elements  in  the  organism 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        175 

of  the  republic  and  the  permanent  exclusion  of  Papal  influ- 
ences. 

SECTION   IV 

The  Legal  Status  of  the  Roman  Church.  When  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  was  organized  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  had  no  legal  status.  On  the  contrary, 
Romanism  was  distinctly  and  specifically  outlawed  as  a 
political  institution  under  the  government  of  a  foreign 
temporal  ruler. 

The  newly  formed  body  politic  was  exclusively  Teutonic 
in  its  organization  and  excluded  the  principles  of  a  gov- 
ernment of  divine  origin  and,  therefore,  of  personal  gov- 
ernment. Consequently,  the  act  of  religious  toleration  in 
the  Constitution  could  not  be  interpreted  as  a  recognition 
of  the  right  claimed  by  any  head  of  a  religious  body  to  con- 
trol the  political  conscience  of  any  person  or  body  of  men 
owing  allegiance  to  the  United  States.  Considering  the  eth- 
ical and  political  character  of  the  constitutional  assemblage 
which  framed  said  act,  and  applying  to  it  the  well  estab- 
lished principle  that  the  interpretation  of  every  law  and  of 
every  constitutional  proviso  must  be  made  in  accordance 
with  the  intent  of  the  framers,  toleration  as  expressed  in 
the  Constitution  could  not  even  cover  a  spiritual  control, 
by  any  ecclesiastical  head  of  a  church,  not  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  but  a  foreign  ruler.  By  the  force  of  logic, 
toleration  could  not  be  granted  to  a  religious  body,  the  head 
of  which,  though  even  a  citizen  and  native  of  the  United 
States,  claims  political  privileges  or  political  supremacy 
over  the  constitutionally  organized  government  of  the 
United  States  or  any  part  thereof. 

Whoever,  therefore,  accepted  the  hospitality  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  and  the  gift  of  citizenship,  accepted 
these  conclusions  and  all  the  conditions  of  residence  and 
citizenship  resulting  therefrom.  The  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  United  States,  exacted  from  every  applicant  for  citizen- 
ship, also  clearly  states  or  implies  these  principles.  Within 
the  territories  acquired  by  treaty  from  Catholic  powers 
the  legal  status  of  the  Romish  Church  is  not  exceptional. 
It  is  a  well  recognized  principle  of  international  law  that 
every  population  annexed  must  merge  in  all  their  customs 
and  in  their  faith,  if  necessary,  into  the  civilization  of  the 
larger  body.     Moreover,  the  peoples  so  annexed  were  by 


176  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

tlie  acts  of  secession  completely  denationalized  and  ceased, 
as  expressly  stipulated  iu  the  respective  treaties,  to  be 
subject  to  any  foreign  power  or  influence.  Within  the 
territories  annexed  by  war,  of  course,  all  riglits  and  priv- 
ileges, spiritual  or  temporal,  ceased  with  the  act  of  annexa- 
tion, and  by  virtue  of  conquest.  The  legal  status  of  every 
American  citizen,  by  birth  or  adoption,  is  therefore  one  of 
absolute  spiritual  and  temporal  dependence  on  the  institu- 
tions of  the  Republic  and  on  its  civilization,  and,  conse- 
quently, on  the  majority  decision  of  the  people.  From  these 
conclusions  it  appears  that  every  citizen  of  the  United 
States  believing  the  dogma  of  the  infallibility,  has  cea.sed, 
morally  and  legally,  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  American  repub- 
lic and  to  be  loyal  to  it. 

SECTION   V 

The  History  of  the  Roman  Establishment.  Thoroughly 
to  understand  the  danger  arising  from  the  Papal  invasion 
it  is  necessary  to  study  the  history  of  the  Roman  Church 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  by  the  light  of  the  Church's 
past  that  we  must  read  the  future. 

When  the  Catholic  priests,  who  landed  with  Columbus, 
planted  the  first  cross  on  American  soil  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Latin  race  and  of  Latin  civilization,  Romanism 
gained  a  foothold  on  this  continent.  Here,  as  in  the  old 
world,  with  the  passage  of  time  everything  has  changed, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Its  or- 
ganization, principles,  doctrines,  teachings,  and  procedure, 
its  forms  and  structure  are  precisely  the  same  to-day  as 
they  were  when  Columbus  first  landed. 

In  the  United  States,  as  a  political  issue,  Romanism  dates 
from  1789  when  Pope  Pius  VI  issued  the  bull  creating  the 
hierarchy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  United 
States  and  appointed  the  Rev.  John  Carroll  the  first 
bishop  of  Baltimore.  It  was  the  first  act  of  usurpation 
of  sovereignty  by  the  Papacy  within  the  United  States. 
The  entire  population  of  the  United  Sates  was  then  little 
less  than  4,000,000,  free  men  and  slaves  included.  The 
Roman  Catholic  population  was  estimated  at  about  40,000 
or  one  of  every  thousand  inhabitants.  Romanism  was  then 
a  delicate  exotic  plant,  nursed  by  a  small  band  of  30  priests, 
almost  exclusively  belonging  to  the  society  of  Jesus. 

Thanks  to  the  liberty  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        177 

enjoyed  it  has  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  material  devel- 
opment of  the  country.  In  1895,  a  century  later,  the  Cath- 
olic population  of  the  United  States  numbered  about  ten 
millions,  or  one  of  every  seven  inhabitants.  There  were 
17  archbishops,  75  bishops,  10,053  priests,  14,503  churches 
and  chapels,  9  universities,  28  seminaries  for  secular  stu- 
dents, with  2129  students,  77  seminaries  of  the  religious 
orders  as  the  Jesuits,  etc.,  with  1474  students,  182  high 
schools  for  boys,  609  high  schools  for  girls,  3731  parochial 
schools  with  775,070  pupils,  239  orphan  asylums  with 
30,867  children,  821  charitable  institutions  and  hundreds 
of  monasteries  sheltering  thousands  of  monks  and  nuns. 
The  total  number  of  children  in  Catholic  institutions  was 
then  918,207.  The  money  value  of  the  Catholic  Church 
edifices  was  returned  at  $118,000,000  while  the  property 
held  by  the  bishops  in  fee  simple  as  vicars  of  the  Pope  was 
estimated  at  two  thousand  millions,  though  competent 
judges  i)oint  to  these  figures  as  far  below  the  market  value 
of  the  real  property  of  the  Romish  Church  in  the  United 
States. 

When  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  organized 
the  Catholic  Church  had  only  a  foothold  in  Maryland. 
Catholics  had  enjoyed  toleration  in  New  York  for  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  under  the  grant  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands by  Charles  II  to  the  Catholic  Duke  of  York.  Under 
Governor  Dongan,  who  was  a  Catholic,  a  Catholic  chapel 
and  a  Latin  school  were  established  in  the  City  of  New 
York  by  three  Jesuit  priests.  The  revolution  of  1688  put 
an  end  to  the  toleration  of  Catholics  in  the  Colony  of  New 
York  and  in  1696  there  were  only  nine  left  in  the  City  of 
New  York.  Penal  laws  against  them  were  enacted  in  New 
York  Colony  in  1700  and  for  more  than  three-quarters  of 
a  century  the  few  Catholics  remaining  in  the  Province  were 
without  a  place  of  worship.  The  New  York  convention  in 
1777  established  conditions  which  virtually  excluded  Cath- 
olics from  citizenship.  In  other  states  their  legal  status 
was  the  same.  Only  in  1806  the  rigorous  naturalization 
oath  required  of  Catholics  was  abrogated  and  in  the  same 
year  IMayor  Clinton  of  New  York  made  the  dangerous  de- 
cision in  a  criminal  case  that  Catholic  priests  are  protected 
from  revealing  the  secrets  of  the  confessional  in  court. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Anti-Catholic  Movement 
section  i 

Measures  to  Repel  the  Papal  Invasion.  Dealing  with 
Romanism  the  American  people  are  called  upon  to  solve 
a  political  question  which  has  disturbed  the  nations  of 
Europe  for  six  hundred  years ;  a  question  which  involves  in 
its  solution  the  very  existence  of  the  republic.  Its  early 
and  final  solution  is  demanded  that  the  dangers  of  religious 
strife  and  of  its  inevitable  effect  in  a  democracy,  religious 
war,  the  most  deplorable  of  all  events  in  the  life  of  a  nation 
may  be  averted.  The  American  people  should  profit  by  the 
lessons  of  history  and  assume  the  offensive  before  the  enemy 
has  time  to  undermine  our  strongholds,  and  to  mass  his  forces 
at  strategical  points  and  in  menacing  numbers  within  offen- 
sive lines.  These  strategical  points  are  the  great  cities, 
certain  states,  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  civil  service.  In 
a  state  of  war  half  measures,  indecision,  and  every  indul- 
gence in  doctrinal  arguments  insure  defeat.  Aggressions 
of  the  most  determined  and  destructive  kind  alone  insure 
victory. 

The  enemy  commands  a  compact  and  superior  organiza- 
tion, a  large  army  of  ignorant,  superstitious,  but  faithful 
voters,  and  an  extraordinary  ability  to  acquire  property 
and  to  gather  riches.  These  forces  are  marshalled  against 
the  American  democracy  at  a  time  of  its  rapid  decline 
caused  by  economic  changes  and  amidst  the  gloom  of  a  gen- 
erally disorganized  condition  of  society. 

To  remove  those  elements  of  strength,  canon  law  should 
not  be  recognized  in  our  courts,  and  the  regulations  of  the 
relations  of  bishop,  priest,  and  layman  to  each  other  and 
to  their  congregations  and  of  the  civil  status  of  the  priest 
should  be  left  to  the  common  law;  statutes  of  mortmain 
should  be  enacted  by  which  all  church  property  of  what- 
ever character,  places  of  actual  worship  alone  excepted, 
must  be  sequestered  by  the  State  for  general  educational 
purposes.     The  acquisition  of  property  of  every  kind  by 

178 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        179 

ecclesiastical  bodies  should  be  absolutely  forbidden.  All 
charitable  institutions  should  be  made  government  institu- 
tions and  their  property  should  also  be  sequestered  by  the 
State  and  held  as  a  separate  fund  for  the  maintenance  of 
public  hospitals ;  all  decrees  and  orders  issued  by  any  citizen 
or  alien  residing  in  the  United  States  or  elsewhere  not  recog- 
nized by  the  laws  of  the  United  States  as  a  properly  consti- 
tuted authority,  or  by  any  person  representing  any  foreign 
government,  State,  organization,  or  person,  ecclesiastical  or 
otherwise,  claiming  allegiance,  loyalty,  or  obedience  in 
matters  spiritual  or  temporal,  should  be  made  legally  inef- 
fective, and  the  proclamation  or  publication  of  such  decrees 
or  orders  should  be  made  punishable  as  an  offense  against 
the  dignity,  peace  and  welfare  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States;  all  persons  owing  allegiance,  spiritual  or  otherwise, 
to  any  foreign  power,  organization,  or  to  any  foreigner  of 
whatever  public  character,  or  official  position  should  not  be 
permitted  to  acquire  or  retain  citizenship  nor  be  allowed 
eligibility  to  any  political  or  public  office  or  to  any  office 
of  trust  in  any  corporation  or  chartered  organization,  and 
should  be  deprived  of  the  right  of  teaching  in  any  institu- 
tion of  learning  and  of  holding  a  commission  in  the  army 
and  navy;  an  educational  qualification  should  be  imposed, 
that  is,  the  possession  of  a  certificate  from  a  secular  school 
or  institution  of  learning  should  be  required,  as  a  condition 
of  citizenship,  and  all  statute  laws  regulating  immigration 
should  apply  in  spirit  and  design  the  principle  of  maintain- 
ing in  our  country  an  exclusive  Teutonic  or  Anglo-Saxon 
civilization.  The  same  principle  should  be  enforced  with 
respect  to  our  educational  system  from  the  * '  Kindergarten ' ' 
to  university  graduation. 

At  the  outset,  it  should  be  the  policy  of  the  American 
democracy  to  nationalize  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  to 
withdraw  it  entirely  from  all  centralized  authority,  and  to 
change  its  theocratic  organization  into  one  in  conformity 
with  American  principles  and  institutions.  So  long  as  a 
large  body  of  citizens  remain  subject  to  the  rule  of  an  "in- 
fallible" being,  whose  statements  and  orders  must  be  obeyed 
and  carried  into  effect  by  his  followers  as  the  unchangeable 
truths  and  orders  of  God,  so  long  this  person  and  the 
theocratic  system  he  represents  will  be  a  danger  to  democ- 
racy. It  matters  not  whether  this  person,  as  at  present,  is 
a  foreigner  on  distant  shores,  or,  as  the  future  may  behold, 


180  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

a  citizen  of  the  United  States  with  the  constitutional  right 
to  be  elected  their  President. 

On  account  of  the  ever  increasing  Catholic  population  of 
an  ignorant  and  superstitious  character,  it  is  far  more  im- 
portant and  vital  to  the  maintenance  of  republican  institu- 
tions to  separate  the  Catholic  Church  in  this  country  from 
all  foreign  or  personal  government  and  influences  than  it 
was  at  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  Independence  to  sep- 
arate the  Episcopal  Church  of  America  from  the  govern- 
ment of  England.  The  while  this  Church  recognized  the 
ecclesiastical  and  temporal  ruler  of  England  as  the  church's 
spiritual  head  it  acted  as  a  foreign  body  in  the  organism  of 
American  society,  always  jeopardizing  its  welfare  and  re- 
tarding its  political  progress ;  with  autonomy,  it  merged  into 
democracy  and  into  Americanism.  The  Anglicans  of  pre- 
revolutionarj^  times  were  of  the  same  race  as  the  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  Colonies,  while  the  immense  majority  of 
the  Catholic  population  of  the  United  States  is  at  present 
and  probably  in  the  future  will  be  of  a  foreign  race  and  of 
a  foreign  civilization.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  the 
dependent  position  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  Colonies 
was  one  of  the  two  great  moral  causes  of  the  American 
revolution.  The  dependent  position  of  the  Catholic  Church 
and  its  unparalleled  and,  therefore,  alarming  growth  in  the 
United  States  should  arouse  the  American  democracy  to  a 
full  sense  of  the  danger  threatening  our  institutions  and 
the  nation 's  ethical  life  before  the  foreign  establishment  has 
gained  such  power  and  secured  such  a  firm  lodgment  that 
it  can  only  be  reduced  and  overcome  by  an  appeal  to  the 
policy  of  "blood  and  iron"  and  after  tremendous  sacrifices 
in  treasure  and  blood. 

The  decade  following  the  War  of  Independence  witnessed 
a  strong  feeling  of  the  American  people  against  everything 
foreign.  During  this  time  the  Roman  Catholic  population 
increased  slowly.  But  with  the  end  of  the  Napoleonic  wars 
the  tide  of  emigration  from  the  Latin  countries  of  Europe 
set  strongly  toward  America.  The  Roman  Catholic  popula- 
tion in  the  United  States  increased  rapidly  and  with  it  the 
hostile  feeling  of  the  American  people  against  Popery. 

In  1828  a  German  politician  and  devout  Roman  Catholic, 
"Frederick  Schlegel,"  Court  Counsellor  of  Austria  and 
friend  and  adviser  of  Mephistopheles  Metternich,  advised 
in  a  number  of  lectures  a  federation  of  Catholic  powers  for 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        181 

the  suppression  of  Protestantism  as  the  source  of  democracy 
and  the  destruction  of  the  North  American  Republic  as  the 
cradle  of  revolution.  To  these  purposes  he  proposed  the 
establishment  of  Catholic  missions  in  North  America  and 
of  a  religious  order  to  be  specially  charged  with  a  prepara- 
tory movement  in  the  execution  of  these  religious  political- 
reactionary  designs.  Such  an  order  was  founded  as  an 
off-shoot  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  and  called  the  ' '  St.  Leopold 
Foundation." 

While  these  proceedings  aroused  the  suspicion  of  the 
American  people,  the  rapidly  increasing  Irish  immigration 
and  the  corresponding  growth  of  the  Romish  establishment 
revived  the  nativistic  movement  which  received  a  distinctly 
religious  character  from  a  powerful  Protestant  feeling  hav- 
ing seized  the  masses  whose  faith  and  patriotism  had  been 
challenged  by  the  jeers  and  taunts  of  the  Irish  rabble.  At 
the  close  of  this  period  of  religious  and  political  excitement 
attempts  were  made  to  stop  the  spread  of  Romanism  by  vio- 
lence and  mob  rule. 

SECTION  n 

The  Native-American  Party.  The  decade  covered  by  the 
forties  is  an  important  one  in  the  history  of  the  anti- 
Catholic  movement  in  the  United  States.  Before,  it  had 
been  of  a  spontaneous  and  indefinite  character  affecting 
more  or  less  all  political  parties,  lacking  cohesion,  a  rallying 
point,  and  a  program.  Until  the  time  specified  it  was  a 
mysterious  feeling  of  impending  danger  which  seized  the 
masses  by  intuition  and  propelled  them  into  mob  violence 
and  into  irrational  political  action,  generating  the  germs 
of  almost  immediate  dissolution  which  within  two  decades 
were  fully  developed  and  proved  destructive  to  the  entire 
movement. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  its  first  crystallization  took  place 
in  the  South  where  in  1841  the  people  of  Louisiana  called 
a  State  convention  and  founded  the  American  Republican 
party  or,  as  it  soon  came  to  be  called,  the  Native-American 
party.  That  great  section  of  our  country  was  almost  with- 
out a  foreign  born  population.  The  slave-owning  and 
landed  aristocracy  cared  little  for  the  religious  character 
of  the  movement.  To  them  every  religion  which  upheld 
slavery  as  a  divine  institution  and  their  social  order  as  con- 
sistent with  a  republican  form  of  government  was  tolerable. 


182  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

But  the  Southern  chivalry  feared  the  spread  of  the  ideas 
wliieli  eondeinned  slavery  as  a  crime  against  humanity  and 
democracy,  ideas  which  after  the  revolutionary  movements 
of  1830  had  agitated  all  Europe  and  found  embodiment  in 
the  great  anti-slavery  movement  emancipating  the  slaves 
in  the  British  possession.  The  slavocracy  of  the  South 
feared  less  the  Celtic  and  Catholic  immigration  from  Ire- 
land than  a  possible  large  emigration  from  the  countries 
peopled  by  the  Teutonic  race  where  the  humane  doctrines 
as  to  man  and  his  relations  to  society  were  being  advocated 
with  the  fervor  of  religious  conviction. 

Liberalism,  not  Romanism,  was  to  be  shut  out  by  the 
organization  of  a  party  undemocratic  in  its  character  be- 
cause it  set  itself  against  the  traditions  of  our  race  and  the 
historical  truths  of  the  Reformation.  The  Native-American 
party  was  a  political  compound  of  opposing  elements  of 
which  slavocracy  and  nativism,  as  ultra-reactionary  forces, 
prevented  the  formation  of  an  ethical  whole.  Eventually 
the  movement  might  have  lost  entirely  its  religious  character 
but  for  the  newly  advanced  demands  of  the  Catholics  for 
a  share  in  the  school  funds,  and  for  the  exclusion  of  the 
Protestant  version  of  the  Bible  from  the  public  schools. 
These  demands  aroused  a  strong  religious  feeling  in  the 
North,  and,  for  the  time  being,  preserved  the  movement 
from  an  outright  conversion  into  a  political  instrument  of 
Southern  aggressions.  The  reactionary  spirit  which  had 
taken  its  rise  from  the  cursed  institution  of  slavery  sur- 
vived the  temporary  reduction  of  the  movement  and  was 
transmitted  to  the  succeeding  one  of  like  nature.  As 
Know-Nothingism  it  disgraced  the  great  American  democ- 
racy. 

SECTION   III 

Know-Nothingism. — A  Forerunner  of  Mgr.  SatoUi. 
The  Mexican  War,  the  struggle  over  the  extension  of 
slavery,  the  Free-Soil  movement,  the  discovery  of  gold,  and 
the  rush  to  California  for  a  time  distracted  the  attention  of 
the  American  people  from  the  silent  and  steady  advance  of 
Romanism,  and  the  anti-Catholic  movement,  so  far  as  its 
political  character  was  concerned,  almost  died  out.  Its 
political  resurrection  in  a  reactionar}'-  garb  was  due  to  the 
political  necessities  of  the  slavocracy  when  the  crushing 
defeat  of  Scott  laid  the  Whigs  prostrate  and  the  then  de- 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        183 

veloping  liberal  and  anti-slavery  movement  in  the  North, 
which  later  on  crystallized  into  the  Republican  party,  chal- 
lenged the  political  supremacy  of  the  South. 

]\Ieanwhile  tlie  anti-Catholic  feeling  as  a  religious  effusion 
had  never  been  suffered  to  subside  altogether.  The  dis- 
closures in  1845  concerning  the  imprisonment  of  an  Amer- 
ican citizen  in  a  Catholic  institution,  the  disclosures  and 
lectures  on  auricular  confessions,  by  "  Giustinani, "  the 
anti-Roman  crusade  of  Father  "Gavozzi,"  an  apostate 
Barnabite  monk ;  the  exhortations  of  numerous  anti-Popery 
preachers  wandering  from  town  to  town,  and  finally  the 
landing  in  New  York  in  the  Autumn  of  1853  of  a  Papal 
nuncio,  Mgr.  "Gaetano  Bedini,"  the  forerunner  of  Mgr. 
"Satolli,"  inflamed  the  passions  of  the  masses  and  even 
filled  the  conservative  and  intelligent  part  of  the  people 
with  evil  forebodings. 

Even  then  the  revival  of  the  Native-American  Party 
might  have  had  only  a  fleeting  effect  on  American  politics 
and  have  remained  localized  but  for  "The  Supreme  Order 
of  the  Star  Spangled  Banner"  and  those  Northern  Whigs, 
mean  of  courage  and  imbecile  of  mind,  who  were  opposed 
to  the  extension  of  slavery  in  the  territories  and,  yet,  on 
principle  upheld  an  institution  from  which  they  feared 
much  future  mischief.  In  1854  the  Order,  which  had 
received  from  its  opponents  the  popular  name  of  Know- 
Nothings,  began  its  invisible,  resistless,  and  mysterious 
career.  The  Order  opposed  political  Romanism,  insisted 
that  all  Church  property  of  every  sect  should  be  taxed; 
that  no  foreigner  under  any  name,  appointed  by  any  foreign 
ecclesiastical  authority,  should  have  control  of  any  prop- 
erty, church,  or  school  in  the  United  States ;  that  no  foreigner 
should  hold  office;  that  there  should  be  a  common-school 
system  on  strictly  American  principles;  that  no  citizen  of 
foreign  birth  should  ever  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  the  native 
born ;  and  that  even  children  of  foreigners  born  on  the  soil 
should  not  have  full  rights  unless  trained  and  educated  in 
the  common-schools. 

The  sweeping  nativistic  principles  of  the  Order  and  these 
planks  in  the  platform  of  the  Native  American  Party  "We 
insist  on  the  unqualified  recognition  and  maintenance  of  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  several  States  .  .  .  and  to  this  end 
on  the  non-interference  by  Congress  with  questions  apper- 
taining solely  to  the  individual  States"  and  "We  insist 


184  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

on  the  maintenance  and  enforcement  of  laws  constitutionally 
enacted  until  said  laws  shall  be  rej)ealed  or  declared  null 
and  void  by  juilieial  authority,"  show  clearly  the  directing 
induences  of  the  reactionary  Southern  element  in  the  Party 
as  well  as  over  its  sustaining  force,  the  Kuow-Nothing 
movement.  The  one  plank  endorsed  the  States'  rights 
principle,  the  other  the  infamous  Dred  Scott  decision.  With 
the  growth  of  the  Republican  Party  and  the  ever  more  dis- 
tinctly appearing  signs  of  the  approach  of  an  irrepressible 
conflict  between  democracy  and  slavery,  the  liberal  element, 
or,  if  such  a  designation  is  admissible,  the  religious  element 
in  the  Native-American  Party  joined  the  new  party  and  the 
true-blue,  dyed-in-the-wool  nativistic  element  and  the 
Northern  pro-slavery  Whigs  the  Democratic  party. 
Knownothingism  disclosed  its  true  Southern  and  anti- 
humane  character  in  the  lingering  traces  which  it  left 
in  Baltimore,  where  it  drew  to  itself  during  a  carnival  of 
crime  and  lawlessness  all  the  ruffians,  "plug-uglies,"  and 
"tigers,"  and  in  the  Southern  Ku-Klux-Klans  and  White 
Cap  organizations  of  post-bellum  days.  In  Baltimore,  in 
1861,  it  incited  the  murder  of  the  yeomaniy  of  Massachu- 
setts marching  to  the  defense  of  the  nation 's  capital ;  in  the 
South,  down  to  the  present  day,  it  incites  the  murder  of 
defenseless  negroes,  controls  elections  with  the  shot-gun  and 
sells  its  political  influence  in  the  nation's  councils  to  the 
trusts.  And  in  the  North?  Well,  there  it  has  been  ever 
since  running  amuck  trying  to  slay  the  missionaries  of  an 
advancing  civilization,  to  interpose  its  own  private  reason 
for  public  reason  or  down  it  with  passion,  to  stifle  the  voice 
of  science,  and  to  serve  slavishly  its  new  masters,  Plutoc- 
racy and  Romanism. 

As  an  anti-Catholic  movement  Know-Nothingism  was  ethi- 
cally not  sufficiently  far  reaching  and  politically  illogical 
and  suicidal  because  it  was  not  fixed  in  the  Reformation  and 
followed  no  racial  lines;  it  proscribed  the  foreign  born  of 
the  Teutonic  race  and  of  the  Protestant  faith  and  took  into 
fellowship  all  the  morally  deficient  political  elements  that, 
from  historical  times  have  retarded  the  progress  of  the 
human  race  and  in  the  end  have  always  served  the  reac- 
tionary powers.  Know-Nothingism  was  a  tool  of  the  planter 
aristocracy,  an  auxiliary  in  the  defense  of  slavery.  Un- 
fortunately the  American  Protective  Association  avoided 


PAPAL  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES        185 

not  the  pitfalls  of  Capitalism  and  nativism,  the  one  bom  of 
greed  and  the  other  of  ignorance  and  morbid  pride. 

History  teaches  that,  the  world  over,  every  anti-Roman 
movement  not  of  purely  humane  conception  and  not  direct 
in  its  purpose  in  the  end  serves  but  Rome.  It  will  not  do 
to  build  around  the  United  States  another  Chinese  Wall 
and  to  hedge  within  it  an  Americanism  which  in  the  a^e 
of  science  and  with  the  approach  of  the  reign  of  reason  is 
but  a  synonym  of  provincialism  always  of  the  narrowest 
and  not  seldom  of  an  idiotic  kind.  The  seeds  of  moral, 
economic,  and  social  progress  are  wafted  over  the  highest 
wall  and  with  the  fostering  care  of  the  God  of  Love  and 
Justice  will  root  and  blossom  and  bear  fruit. 


PART  VI 

OUR  ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND 
ROME'S  AUXILIARIES 

CHAPTER  I 

A  Jesuitical  Policy,    Many  Causes  Contributed  to  the 
Growth  of  Romanism  on  American  Soil 

section  i 

The  Confederacy  and  Rome's  Treachery.  The  reaction- 
ary character  of  the  first  two  anti-Catholic  movements 
jeopardized  the  progressive  elements  of  our  population 
and  their  humane  tendencies  as  much  as  Roman  power. 
The  struggle  over  slavery  and  the  growth  of  capitalism 
generally  demoralized  our  population,  weakened  patriotism, 
degenerated  party  politics  into  bossism ;  the  skillful  massing 
of  the  Catholic  vote  gained  exceptional  political  result; 
the  Protestant  sects  reduced  to  worldliness,  lost  their  influ- 
ence and  leadership. 

In  1870,  James  Fisk,  the  partner  of  Jay  Gould  in  his 
early  schemes  of  fraud  and  robbery  as  a  railroad  wrecker 
and  Wall  Street  sharp,  during  an  election  for  members  of 
the  Legislature  of  New  York,  said :  ' '  We  are  Democrats  in 
Democratic  districts  and  Republicans  in  Republican  dis- 
tricts that  both  parties  may  serve  us  in  the  end. "  This  has 
been  the  policy  of  the  Romish  Church  when  her  own 
strength  was  doubtful  and  her  natural  ally,  the  Democratic 
party,  in  a  hopeless  minority,  while  the  Republican  party 
as  yet,  was  possessed  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  and 
encompassed  by  racial  traditions,  and  was  a  very  different 
body  from  the  effete  and  chicken-hearted  Republican  party 
of  this  time.  This  policy  of  division  of  forces  and  of  their 
local  manipulation  was  successful  in  many  directions:  it 
sustained  the  life  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  and 
buncoed  the  Republican  party  into  a  policy  of  laissez  faire 
in  all  matters  pertaining  to  Romanism ;  it  permitted  the 
control  of  the  municipalities  in  which  the  Catholic  vote  was 

186 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES       187 

a  deciding  factor;  it  prevented  hostile  legislation  in  the 
various  States;  it  coerced  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
South  while  it  paralyzed  the  Republican  party  in  the 
North;  it  demoralized  and  cowed  the  politicians  of  both 
parties;  it  sent  the  Democratic  party  drifting  away  from 
Jeffersonianism,  and  the  Republican  party  from  Lincoln- 
ism;  it  paved  the  way  for  a  Jesuit  party  whose  members 
outwardly  remained  loyal  to  their  party  though  in  reality 
they  served  only  Rome. 

During  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  the  Romish  Church 
adhered  to  the  same  policy.  While  his  Holiness  the  Pope 
as  the  infallible  vicar  of  Christ  hastened  to  recognize  the 
Confederacy  and  lent  his  influence  to  the  defense  of  slavery 
that  the  Protestant  Republic  of  North  America  might  be 
destroyed,  the  Romish  hierarchy  of  the  North  made  a  show 
of  loyalty  in  the  organization  of  Irish  regiments,  which, 
according  to  the  statements  of  Roman  editors  and  orators, 
fought  all  our  battles  and  gained  all  our  victories.  They 
are  silent  to  the  fact,  matters  of  record  in  the  archives  of 
the  War  Department,  that  only  nine  per  cent,  of  the  Irish 
enlisted  and  that  of  144,000  Irishmen  in  the  Union  army 
104,000  deserted. 

When  in  1863  the  rebels  assumed  the  offensive,  when  Lee 's 
army  invaded  the  North,  and  the  fate  of  the  Union  hung  in 
the  balance,  when  the  cities  of  the  North  were  left  defense- 
less, the  militia  having  left  for  the  seat  of  war,  Rome 
threw  off  its  mask  of  loyalty  and  instigated  the  draft 
riots  in  Boston  and  New  York,  where  the  fanatical  Irish 
rabble  repeated  the  bloody  scenes  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
Not  a  Romish  priest  interfered  when  the  Roman  Catholic 
Irish  of  New  York  burned  down  an  orphan  asylum  for 
colored  children  and  in  beastly  frenzy  flung  the  helpless 
children  into  the  flames;  not  a  Romish  priest  interfered 
when  the  Irish  mob  stoned  to  death  a  detachment  of  de- 
fenseless crippled  veterans,  when  the  mob  fired  build- 
ings, pillaged  and  murdered.  When  it  became  apparent 
that  the  insurrection  in  the  North  would  be  crushed, 
when  it  appeared  probable  that  the  patriotic  fury  of 
the  people  might  also  assail  Romanism  as  the  source  of 
treason  and  hold  Jesuitism  responsible  for  its  dastardly  act 
of  inciting  rebellion  in  the  rear  of  the  Union  army  during 
a  crisis  of  the  nation  and  while  the  city  was  left  defenseless 
and  at  the  mercy  of  its  anarchical  Irish  mob,  then,  after 


188  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

days  of  bloodshed  and  terror,  after  the  slaugrhter  of  defense- 
less Protestant  women  and  children,  the  Arelibishop  of  New 
York  addressed  the  mob,  his  faithful  and  always  obedient 
flock,  the  murderers  and  incendiaries  as  "my  children" 
and  counselled  the  acceptance  of  the  inevitable:  submission. 

The  spirit  that  animated  the  bloodthirsty  Irish  Catholic 
mob  to  raise  in  the  streets  of  New  York  the  standard  of 
rebellion  is  the  same  spirit  that  for  centuries  of  Romish 
aggressions  has  incited  crimes  without  end.  It  is  not  a 
spirit  fatalistic  in  its  nature  like  that  which  moves  the 
peoples  of  Oriental  countries,  the  mujiks  of  Russia,  or  the 
oppressed  of  the  Hebrew  nation ;  it  is  brutish  and  destruc- 
tive of  the  best  and  highest  interests  and  the  prestige  of 
Republican  institutions  and  must  be  made  odious,  or  it 
will  endanger  the  safety  of  the  Republic.  It  is  the  spirit 
that  impels  Catholics  to  obey  the  laws  when  they  are  satis- 
factory to  Rome  and  to  offer  resistance  when  they  oppose 
the  Church. 

It  is  the  same  anti-American,  anti-Democratic,  anti- 
Republican,  anti-humanitarian  spirit  that  has  manifested 
itself  in  anarchism.  Shall  we  crush  it  promptly,  or  shall  it 
be  allowed  to  again  endanger  the  existence  of  the  Republic  ? 
Shall  we  crush  it  at  once  and  forever,  or  shall  we  wait  until 
it  compels  us  to  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  the  country 
another  million  of  precious  lives  and  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  generations  to  expiate  the  sin  of  having  allowed 
ourselves  to  be  swayed  by  selfishness  and  cowardice?  In 
place  of  vague  desire,  we  must  make  conscious  effort  to 
down  Romanism,  the  incarnate  representative  of  the  spirit 
of  darkness,  that  we  may  save  our  country  from  the  despot- 
ism of  a  theocracy  that  in  an  age  in  which  demoniacal  pos- 
session is  considered  a  form  of  mental  malady  claims  the 
power  of  successful  exorcism,  and  on  American  soil  and 
that  a  century  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  prac- 
tices necromancy  as  a  religious  rite. 

SECTION   II 

From  Mere  Toleration  to  a  Commanding  Position.     In 

1889  Cardinal  Gibbons  of  Baltimore  said  in  a  pastoral  letter 
published  on  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniver- 
sary of  the  establishment  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  the 
United  States:  "The  Catholic  Church  subsists  and  ex- 
pands under  all  forms  of  government  and  adapts  herself 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES       189 

to  all  times  and  places  and  circumstances ;  and  this  she  does 
without  any  compromise  of  principle,  or  any  derogation 
from  the  supreme  authority  of  the  church,  .  .  .  the  disci- 
pline of  the  church  is  changeable,  just  as  man  himself  is 
ever  the  same  in  his  essential  characteristics,  while  his  dress 
varies  according  to  the  fashions  of  the  times. ' '  At  another 
occasion  the  same  Cardinal  said:  "Now,  if  we  look  at  the 
humble  beginning  of  the  Church  in  this  country  and  what 
she  has  passed  through  and  all  the  difficulties  she  has  sur- 
mounted ...  if  we  consider  all  this  and  how  she  has  grown 
from  so  simple  a  beginning  to  what  she  is  at  present,  ten 
millions  of  Catholics  to-day  where  formerly  there  were  so 
few,  what  may  we  not  count  upon  in  the  future?  With  our 
superior  organization  and  the  kindlier  view  that  is  taken  of 
us,  I  think  we  have  reason  to  entertain  the  brightest 
hopes." 

The  statements  of  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Primas  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States,  contain  a 
lesson  and  a  warning  to  the  American  people.  They  show 
by  what  means  the  Romish  Church  is  ascending  in  political 
power  and  that  she  is  looking  higher  for  the  climax  of 
supreme  dominion  in  the  Republic.  The  Jesuitical  policy 
which  adapts  itself  to  circumstances,  skillfully  hides  its 
purposes,  covers  the  iron  hand  of  intolerance  and  theocratic 
despotism  and,  for  the  time  being,  suppresses  all  emotions 
of  ambition  and  greed,  has  had  a  w^onderful  effect  on  the 
American  people.  Separated  by  an  ocean  from  the  scenes 
of  Papal  dominion  and  Jesuitism,  the  American  people 
have  remained  unacquainted  with  their  historical  effects, 
have  never  felt  their  clammy  touch  and  have  only  a  remote 
conception  of  the  vile  practices  and  hypocritical  professions 
of  the  Roman  theocracy  and,  therefore,  in  their  apparently 
safe  seclusion,  became  so  tolerant  of  intolerance  that,  sooner 
than  defend  their  rights  and  repulse  the  invision,  they 
allowed  Rome  to  ride  over  them  rough  shod.  Gradually 
Rome  has  so  scared  the  American  people  with  the  shout  of 
"bigotry"  that  they  have  allowed  her  to  fill  the  public 
offices  with  Irish  pretorians  and  American  traitors,  loot  the 
public  treasuries,  attack  the  schools,  subsidize  the  press, 
muzzle  the  preachers  and  coerce  the  Legislatures.  Thus 
the  very  love  of  religious  and  civic  liberty  of  the  masses  of 
the  American  people  became  the  nourishing  element  of 
Boraanism.     If  we  add  the  advantages  which  Rome  enjoyed 


190  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

in  a  nowly  forming  civilization  within  a  nation  hastily  con- 
solidating and  developing  its  resources  under  continually 
changing  conditions,  we  can  understand  how  it  is  that 
Romanism  silently  and  almost  unchallenged  entered  into 
the  organism  of  the  state  and  now  has  a  fair  chance  of 
acquiring  complete  control.  The  AVar  of  the  Rebellion,  the 
succeeding  general  demoralization  of  the  people,  the  changes 
in  their  relations  brought  about  by  new  economic  condi- 
tions, and  the  immense  growth  in  wealth  of  entire  classes 
and  of  individuals  gave  to  Rome  the  patiently  awaited 
opportunity  to  advance  with  giant  strides  from  a  condition 
of  mere  toleration  in  society  to  one  of  commanding  super- 
iority in  the  politics  of  the  nation.  During  this  period  of 
social  and  political  corruption  Rome  seized  everj'  opportun- 
ity to  bring  into  play  on  the  political  chess  board  her 
knaves,  the  great  bodj^  of  Irish  and  Italian  Catholics.  Then 
the  policy  of  massing  forces  for  the  success  of  one  party  or 
the  other  was  inaugurated  and  ably  directed  in  the  exclu- 
sive interest  of  Rome. 

If  the  Irish-bom  population  of  any  American  city  be 
multiplied  by  three,  the  approximate  native-bom  popula- 
tion of  Irish  parentage  will  be  attained,  and  if  the  total  be 
divided  by  five  the  number  of  Irish  voters  under  the  abso- 
lute influence  of  the  Romish  church  can  be  computed. 
Calculating  the  political  strength  of  the  Romish  establish- 
ment in  the  United  States  it  is  necessary  to  include  the 
immense  majority  of  the  bigoted  ignorant  Italians, 
Bohemians,  and  Poles,  and  also  their  native-born  progeny 
and  the  native-born  population  of  Irish  descent  in  the  third 
generation.  The  influences  of  the  Church,  the  brutish 
instincts  of  the  Celtic  and  Slavic  races  and  their  clanishness 
which  creates  a  solid  nucleus  of  votes,  always  giving  political 
preference  to  a  Catholic  over  any  one  else,  are  powerful 
agencies  of  continued  political  adhesion.  This  is  particu- 
larly the  case  with  the  Irish.  In  fact,  had  one  been  asked 
to  prepare  a  race  for  dominance  among  a  people  governed 
as  are  the  people  of  the  United  States  by  universal  suffrage, 
he  could  not  have  improved  on  the  Irish.  Under  the  skill- 
ful direction  of  the  Church  the  Irish  voters  have  so  con- 
centrated their  energy  along  a  given  line  as  to  eliminate 
nearly  all  waste  of  force.  Though  being  one  of  the  turbu- 
lent races,  the  Irish,  through  their  superstition  and  general 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES      191 

ignorance,  uncultured  as  they  are,  subject  themselves  wil- 
lingly to  the  most  severe  discipline  and  blindly  obey  the 
orders  of  their  political  leaders  who  are  absolutely  ruled 
by  tneir  spiritual  advisers.  Yet  are  their  organizations 
democratic  in  this,  that  he  who  can  rule  rules.  The  law  of 
the  survival  of  the  iBttest  governs,  that  the  Church  may 
profit  by  it.  To  her  it  matters  not  who  the  Boss  is.  Every 
one  is  the  tool  and  slave  of  the  Church.  Whenever  one  or 
the  other  fails  to  serve  any  longer  the  purposes  of  the 
Church  he  is  unceremoniously  dropped  and  another  is  sub- 
stituted who  is  more  circumspect  in  corrupt  practices  and 
sufficiently  prudent  not  to  parade  sudden  wealth  mysteri- 
ously acquired.  The  leaders  chosen  by  the  Church  are 
usually  men  of  limited  education,  often  "lewd  fellows  of 
the  baser  sort,"  that  their  ambition  may  not  outstrip  the 
interests  and  purposes  of  the  Church. 

SECTION  m 

The  Strongholds  of  the  Irish-Roman  Freebooters.    So 

long  as  the  ignorant  Irish  only  constituted  Rome's  forces 
available  for  political  purposes,  her  political  operations 
were  limited  to  the  control  of  municipalities  in  which  as 
compact  communities  the  various  advantages  outlined  could 
make  themselves  felt.  The  treasury  of  every  city  in  which 
Rome  ruled  supreme  was  robbed  to  build  up  the  Church, 
to  support  her  institutions,  and  the  large  criminal  and 
pauper  classes  that  are  found  in  every  Roman  Catholic 
country  and  within  every  race  subjugated  by  Rome  as  the 
result  of  her  pernicious  and  soul-killing  rule.  Whenever 
the  corruption  and  the  thefts  of  Irish  Catholic  municipal 
politicians  were  disclosed  to  the  public  the  Church  was 
always  anxious  to  save  the  faithful  from  punishment  for 
the  very  reasons  which  moved  a  juror  to  vote  for  the  acquit- 
tal of  a  prisoner  charged  with  stealing  a  pig.  The  juror  was 
particeps  criminis;  the  hams  were  curing  in  his  smoke- 
house. Besides  the  Catholic  discipline  does  not  contem- 
plate excommunication  for  violation  of  the  moral  code,  but 
only  for  lapse  from  the  faith  and  refusal  to  obey  ecclesiasti- 
cal directions.  When  the  Tweed  ring  was  hurled  from 
power  in  New  York  not  one  of  its  Catholic  members  was 
lield  criminally  responsible.  After  a  few  years  of  banish- 
ment, during  which  they  lived  in  luxury  on  the  proceeds 


192  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

of  their  rascality,  tlicy  returned,  paid  back  a  trifle  of  their 
st^-alings,  and  continued  to  be  prominent  members  of  the 
Irisli-Catholic  community  and  of  the  Church. 

Then  already,  over  forty  years  ago,  the  political  and  social 
power  of  the  Romish  church  was  such  that  her  efforts  not 
only  saved  the  most  notorious  thieves  of  the  age  from 
criminal  prosecution  but  also  managed  the  appointment  by 
the  citizens  committee  of  Seventy,  mostly  men  of  wealth 
who  silently  recognized  the  value  of  the  Romish  Church 
and  system  as  reactionary  agencies,  of  Charles  0 'Conor, 
a  faithful  and  always  obedient  son  of  the  Church,  as  general 
prosecutor  of  the  Tammany  ring.  The  curious  legal  blun- 
ders committed  by  this  great  jurist  right  at  the  start  in  the 
institution  of  civil  suits  and  his  adroit  mismanagement  of 
the  investigation,  in  which  he  was  purposely  and  skillfully 
assisted  by  the  famous  reformer  and  notorious  railroad 
wrecker  and  political  wirepuller,  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  saved 
the  rascals  from  State  prison  and  from  returning  their 
ill-gotten  wealth  and — the  Romish  Church  from  the  un- 
pleasantness of  revealing  the  sources  of  the  greater  part  of 
its  riches  and  revenues  in  New  York  State. 

To  break  the  hold  of  the  Roman  Church  on  American 
municipalities  it  is  necessary  to  break  the  political  hold  of 
the  Catholics  on  the  same  and  to  deprive  them  of  every 
opportunity  to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  public. 

As  yet,  the  political  power  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Irish  depends  on  their  ability  to  live  massed  in  the  cities. 
A  continuance  of  such  ability  will  in  the  nearest  future 
menace  American  civilization.  Therefore,  whenever  the 
American  people  shall  again  have  gained  control  of  their 
municipalities,  it  must  become  a  fixed  policy,  closely  and 
unflinchingly  pursued,  to  refuse  employment  to  the  Irish 
or  to  all  professing  Catholics  on  any  municipal  or  private 
improvement  under  municipal  control,  to  the  end  that  the 
pretorians  of  the  church  shall  be  forced  to  disperse  to  such 
localities  where  they  can  be  overawed  and  held  in  check. 
For  the  low^er  class  of  labor  negroes  can  be  successfully 
employed.  Democracy  would  then  strike  a  double  blow  for 
freedom  and  humanity;  at  Jesuitism,  and  at  the  planter 
aristocracy  of  the  South.  An  equalization  of  the  labor 
market  of  the  South  will  increase  the  negro's  wage,  ad- 
vance him  intellectually,  morally,  and  socially,  and  save 
him  from  the  cruel  persecution  of  the  Southern  chivalry. 


ULTRAMOXTAXE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES       193 

Such  a  policy  would  help  materially  and  morally  to  solve 
the  negro  question.  It  would  continually  influence  and 
shape  the  economic  and  social  conditions  of  the  South, 
reduce  her  political  weight  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  like- 
wise race  prejudices  and  the  social  and  political  dangers 
threatening  the  Republic  from  the  concentration  of  races 
that  will  always  remain  foreign  material  in  our  organic 
body  and  as  such  cannot  assimilate  with  Teutonic  or 
Protestant  civilization. 


CHAPTER  II 

Reaching  Out  for  the  Presidency 

section  i 

President  Garfield's  Assassination.  John  Carroll,  the 
first  Roman  Catholic  bisliop  in  the  United  Stat^^s,  said  in 
one  of  his  pastoral  letters:  "I  do  not  wish  the  Church  to 
vegetate  as  a  delicate  exotic  plant;  it  must  grow  a  sturdy 
tree,  deep  rooted  in  the  soil  and  inured  to  the  climate  of  the 
country."  So  long  as  the  Romish  Church  was  the  church 
of  the  Irish  only,  of  a  foreign  born  population  and  of  a 
foreign  race,  it  remained  an  exotic  plant  on  American  soil. 
It  was,  therefore,  absolutely  necessary  to  bring  the  Church 
into  outward  relation  with  the  economic,  social,  and  political 
peculiarities  of  the  American  people  and  to  proselyte  a 
considerable  part  thereof. 

From  the  foundation  of  Georgetown  College  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  great  Roman  Catholic  University  in  Washing- 
ton it  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Romish  Church  to  draw 
within  its  educational  influences  the  children  of  well  to  do 
and  influential  Protestants.  Extraordinary  success  has 
crowned  this  policy  because  the  Roman  Catholic  educa- 
tional establishments  of  a  higher  grade  were  far  superior 
in  method  and  curriculum  to  our  private  and  public  institu- 
tions of  similar  character.  The  pedagogics  of  the  Jesuit 
fathers  have  always  merited  the  highest  praise  and  this 
qualification  served  them  well  to  increase  the  riches  and 
to  augment  the  power  of  their  Order  and  of  their  Church. 

In  the  Roman  Catholic  educational  institutions  the  chil- 
dren of  American  parentage  were  gradually  estranged  from 
Protestantism;  the  affections  were  turned  into  channels 
which  sooner  or  later  would  lead  to  Rome  or  to  indifference 
in  all  matters  of  a  religious  and  racial  character.  The 
superior  mental  training  which  the  Protestant  children  had 
received  in  the  institutions  of  the  Jesuit  Order  qualified 
them  for  commanding  position  in  society  and  advanced 
them  rapidly  in  their  avocations,  in  the  professions,  and  in 
politics.     Outwardly    professing    Protestantism,    at    heart 

194 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES      195 

Romanists,  they  were  in  a  position  to  advocate  and  to 
advance,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  cause  of  Rome  without 
exciting  suspicion  or  burdening  the  Church  with  responsi- 
bilities. They  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Jesuit  or  Ultra- 
montane party  in  our  country,  which  enlarged  with  the 
growth  of  Romish  power  in  politics  and  now  has  ramifica- 
tions in  every  political  party,  almost  in  every  private  and 
public  institution,  in  every  public  office,  and  in  the  army 
and  navy.  It  controlled  many  administrations  and  Con- 
gresses, the  States'  Legislatures,  the  political  conventions, 
the  public  schools  and  many  seats  of  learning;  it  enters 
Protestant  pulpits  and  the  councils  of  Protestant  sects. 

"With  the  rapid  growth  of  this  party,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  extended  its  political  operations.  It  entered  State 
politics  and  gained  a  strong  foothold  in  Congress.  By  de- 
grees it  secured  the  control  of  the  governments  of  States  in 
which  the  Irish  population  was  numerically  strong.  It 
sent  its  representatives  to  the  United  States  Senate,  placed 
them  on  the  bench  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  and 
reached  out  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  in 
repeated  attempts  to  control  the  National  conventions  of 
parties. 

The  first  such  attempt  was  made  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  of  1876,  held  at  St.  Louis, 
where  the  Church  forced  concessions  from  the  successful 
candidate.  At  this  Convention  the  Romanists  soon  were 
made  aware  that  their  strength  was  not  sufficient  to  insure 
the  nomination  of  their  candidate,  Mr.  Hendricks,  of 
Indiana;  Tilden  also  lacked  in  strength.  After  the  second 
ballot  it  became  apparent  that  another  would  result  in  the 
choice  of  a  compromise  candidate.  The  key  to  the  position 
was  held  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Missouri  delegation,  ]\Ir. 
Spanhorst,  a  devout  Catholic  and  a  representative  politician 
of  the  Church.  The  presiding  officer  of  the  Convention,  a 
Tilden  man,  hastily  entertained  a  motion  for  a  recess  and 
before  the  vote  was  announced,  declared  it  carried.  Til- 
den's  managers  then  appealed  to  Rome,  or  rather  decided 
to  agree  to  its  propositions  which  to  them  were  well  known. 
Mr.  Spanhorst  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Amerika,  a  German  weekly  of  influence  published 
in  St.  Louis  in  a  building  situated  directly  opposite  the 
Convention  hall.  After  a  hurried  conference  in  Mr.  Span- 
horst's  office  this  gentleman  agreed  to  change  the  vote  of 


196  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

^lissouri  from  Hendricks  to  Tilden,  who  lacked  only  a  few 
votes. 

As  the  Republican  boss  of  New  York  City,  Mr.  Arthur 
had  always  had  intimate  relations  with  Rome.  The  Repub- 
lican party  had  then  already  entered  into  the  long  period 
of  turpitude  from  which  it  partly  emerged  in  18!iM.  The 
professional  managers  of  the  party  in  their  purblindness 
then  expected  to  retain  power  indefinitely  by  an  alliance 
with  Rome  and  to  fill  up  the  ever  widening  gap  in  the  ranks 
of  the  party  with  Irish  recruits  as  substitutes  for  the  dis- 
gusted American  and  German  veterans  who  from  1860  had 
carried  the  party's  banner  from  victory  to  victory.  Of 
course  Rome  demanded  concessions.  Mr.  Arthur  was  nom- 
inated as  Vice-President  with  the  understanding  that  he 
siiould  control  the  Federal  appointments  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  the  political  control  of  which  was  then  much 
desired  by  Rome.  Carapbellite  Garfield's  unexpected  and 
determined  stand  against  the  encroachments  of  Rome 
spoiled  the  program.  For  his  strong  Americanism  he  suf- 
fered martyrdom;  like  others  he  ivas  felled  doivn  by  that 
mysterious  power  that  had  clouded  the  assassin's  mind  and 
enslaved  his  will.  Though  circumstances,  and  Guiteau's 
apparition,  often  interposed,  Rome  fared  well  under 
Arthur's  administration. 

It  must  be  left  to  history  to  define  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  relations  which  undoubtedly  existed  between  Mv. 
Blaine  and  Rome  and  to  fix  the  limits  of  their  duration. 
Certain  it  is,  that  Rome's  most  powerful  political  machine 
in  this  country,  Tammany  Hall,  exerted  itself  in  1884  to 
carry  the  pivotal  State  of  New  York  for  Blaine.  Large 
sums  of  money  had  been  judiciously  placed  by  Tammany 
politicians  to  secure  for  him  the  labor  vote  of  New  York 
City  either  directly  or  indirectly  under  cover  of  a  third 
candidate,  Mr.  Cooper.  In  a  certain  sense,  Mr.  Blaine  was 
unfortunate  in  his  ambitious  desire  to  reach  the  top  notch 
of  political  preferment.  Whenever  the  coveted  prize 
appeared  to  be  in  his  reach,  accidents  overtook  his  candi- 
dacy ;  some  might  call  them  acts  of  Providence,  fit  retribu- 
tion. A  slip  of  the  tongue  of  the  Rev.  Burchard — Rum, 
Romanism,  and  Rebellion — and  one  of  those  periodical, 
curious,  always  amusing  quarrels  over  the  distribution  of 
the  spoils  and  the  bossing  of  the  ecclesiastical  machine — 
which  so  often  disturb  the  inner  circles  of  the  Romish 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES      197 

ecclesiastical  family,  always  somewhat  in  the  nature  of 
Barnura's  happy  family,  and  which  enhance  the  nobility 
and  beauty  of  the  ancient  church  and  serve  so  well  its  divine 
purpose  and  demonstrate  its  divine  origin — were  the  real 
causes  of  J\Ir.  Blaine's  defeat.  Catholic  Mr,  Grace,  repre- 
senting in  politics  one  party  to  the  quarrel,  and  Catholic 
Mr.  Grant,  representing  the  other,  were  contesting  for  the 
Mayoralty  of  New  York.  With  Mr.  Burchard's  timely  and 
gratuitous  help  and  through  quite  legitimate  influences  the 
labor  vote  was  switched  into  the  Grace  camp  at  the  very 
last  moment.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  the  first  Harrison  cam- 
paign ]\Ir.  Blaine,  through  IMr.  Grace,  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  the  Romish  Church.  Mr.  Grace  was  then  again 
in  full  harmony  with  all  of  his  co-religionists  and  angry 
with  Cleveland.  In  the  distribution  of  patronage  and  in 
certain  appointments  in  the  diplomatic  and  customs  service 
Mr.  Harrison  apparently  endeavored  to  square  accounts 
with  Mr.  Grace  and  the  Romish  Church. 

SECTION    II 

David  Bennett  Hill,  Rome's  Candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency. In  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1892  Rome  played 
a  bold,  shrewd  and  peculiar  game  which  she  lost  preemi- 
nently because  the  sugar  trust  and  kindred  organizations, 
to  which  in  the  interim  Mr.  Cleveland  had  consecrated  him- 
self, were  able  to  offer  superior  attractions  to  impecunious 
delegates  to  the  National  Democratic  Convention. 

From  experience  gathered  during  Presidential  campaigns 
and  at  the  White  House  at  Washington  the  Romish  Church 
drew  the  lesson  not  to  trust  the  promises  of  candidates. 
Circumstances,  over  which  they  might  have  no  control,  old 
associations,  and  party  pressure  usually  enforced  after  the 
inauguration  a  departure  from  the  policy  agreed  upon  by 
the  contracting  parties.  Besides  the  Church  felt  strong 
enough  to  cast  aside  all  reserve  and  to  execute  one  of  the 
master  moves  through  which  Rome  has  been  so  successful 
in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries. 

A  Catholic  President,  in  purpose,  if  not  in  faith,  with 
all  the  patronage  of  the  government  in  his  hands  could 
favor  and  build  up  the  Church  in  multitudinous  ways.  The 
concentration  of  the  Catholic  vote  in  the  pivotal  States  on 
the  candidate  of  one  or  the  other  party  might  decide  the 
election.     The  only  questions  to  be  settled  were  the  choice 


198  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

of  the  party  and  of  the  candidate.  The  Church  was  tired 
of  the  see-saw  ^aiiic  It  had  experienced  in  New  York 
City  and  State  the  benefits  of  eoneentrated  aetion.  There 
all  Catholie  iiistitutioiis  were  more  or  less  supported  with 
money  raised  by  taxation.  If  tlie  same  policy  ccnild  l)e  car- 
ried through  in  Washington,  where  the  Cluirch  has  many 
interests  at  stake,  otiiers  eould  be  created  to  be  fostered. 

When  the  germs  of  this  policy  were  develojjed  tiie  far- 
reaching  and  towering  plan  of  Leo  XIII  in  the  relations  of 
the  Papacy  to  the  United  States  were,  as  yet,  not  conceived 
and,  of  course,  unknown  to  the  American  hierarchy.  They 
were  moved  in  the  matter  simply  by  the  desire  to  extend 
the  process  of  exploitation  all  over  the  United  States  and 
to  secure  the  control  of  the  national  exchequer  as  they 
already  controlled  the  exchequers  of  the  State  and  munici- 
pality of  New  York  and  of  other  Cities  and  Stiites.  With 
them  it  was  a  business  matter ;  political  considerations  were 
of  less  import. 

The  Church,  therefore,  decided  to  train  a  Presidential 
candidate  and  to  secure  one  of  the  great  parties  as  a  willing 
in.strunient.  Notwithstanding  the  degeneration  of  the  Re- 
publican part}^  and  the  cowardice,  mediocrity,  rapacity, 
corruption,  and  propensity  of  the  party's  leaders  to  serve 
the  devil,  the  acute  political  instinct  of  Rome  convinced 
her  that  at  that  time  the  masses  of  the  Republican  party 
would  always  remain  true  to  American  principles  and 
that  they  could  not  be  held  in  intellectual  or  political 
bondage  after  they  once  awoke  to  the  fact.  Intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  Republican  party  might  lay  it  open  to 
suspicion,  demoralize  it,  and  compromise  the  leaders  with 
the  Protestant  masses.  Thus  weakened  it  could  be  turned 
into  a  minority  party.  Yet  its  very  composition  made 
it  a  standing  menace  to  Rome.  From  November,  1884,  such 
had  been  its  policy. 

The  Democratic  party  offered  to  Rome  various  advantages. 
In  the  first  place  the  Irish  were  part  and  parcel  of  it.  The 
South  was  solidly  Democratic.  Her  politicians  had  entered 
into  an  entente  with  Rome.  The  American  stock  of  the 
Democratic  party  is  given  to  hunkerism  and  Bourbonism ; 
and  great  numbers  of  this  stock,  illiterate,  boorish,  and 
superstitious,  would  believe  that  the  earth  is  a  huckle- 
berry pie  if  the  party  platform  so  stated.  Furthermore, 
the  Democratic  party  was  massed  in  the  big  cities  where 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES       199 

the  corrupting  influences  of  the  Church  have  full  play. 
Moreover,  as  a  soulless  conglomerate  mass,  the  party  had 
sooner  or  later  to  become  the  political  instrument  of  In- 
ternational Capitalism,  the  twin  of  theocracy. 

In  her  choice  of  a  politician  to  be  trained  for  the  Pres- 
idential race  Rome  displayed  her  usual  acumen,  patience, 
and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  the  Democratic 
party  and  of  the  mental  characteristics  and  low  morality 
of  the  average  American  politician.  Rome  chose  a  man 
whose  personality  was  the  product  of  a  fin  de  siecle  society 
that,  in  the  judgment  of  any  casuist  of  a  foreign  race, 
appeared  to  drift  into  dissolution,  to  be  extremely  sup- 
erficial in  intellectuality  and  morality,  and  to  be  imbued 
with  the  spirit  which  finds  definition  in  the  proverb  "The 
devil  take  the  hindmost."  Rome  once  more  made  one  of 
its  usual  mistakes  in  its  dealings  with  the  Teutonic  race 
and  with  Protestantism. 

The  man  chosen  as  the  standard  bearer  of  Romanism 
was  David  Bennett  Hill.  As  a  youthful  politician  with 
a  very  superficial  education  he  matriculated  in  the  high 
school  of  Tweedism  and  graduated  therefrom  as  a  choice 
spirit  of  political  sophistry  and  an  adept  in  the  legerdemain 
by  which  men  impose  upon  their  own  soul  and  for  a  time 
beguile  the  public.  Unprincipled,  unscrupulous,  crafty, 
and  resourceful,  without  character  and  without  genius,  by 
nature  molded  to  decorous  behavior  and  abstemious  habits, 
cautious  and  fairly  intelligent,  without  religious  senti- 
ments or  such  of  the  heart,  by  profession  a  lawyer,  and 
by  selective  nature  destined  for  the  priesthood,  David 
Bennett  Hill  was  just  the  man  to  suit  the  purposes  of 
Rome.  As  the  duck  takes  to  the  water,  so  did  such  an 
individual  drift  towards  Rome,  and  though  outwardly  a 
Protestant,  it  is  now  certain  that  he  had  been  made  a 
convert  and  a  lay  brother  of  the  Order  of  Loyola.  If 
it  serves  their  purposes,  the  Jesuits  do  not  demand  from 
proselytes  a  public  renunciation  of  their  creed  or  the 
severance  of  former  religious  and  social  relations. 

Labelled  "I  am  a  Democrat,"  provided  with  the  "Stars 
and  Stripes,"  and  with  the  best  organ  money  could  buy, 
David  was  sent  by  way  of  Albany  along  the  road  to  the 
White  House  to  dicker,  wherever  opportunity  offered,  with 
the  politicians  of  all  parties.  On  his  way,  he  met  the 
professional  labor  agitators,  the  rum  sellers,  the  Jews  and 


200  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  gentiles,  and  the  Republican  politicians  who  after- 
wards ascribed  the  Republican  victory  of  1893  to  the  in- 
terposition of  Providence  and  who  were  then,  as  they  are 
now,  ever  ready  to  sell  the  birthright  of  the  American 
people.  In  Chicago,  Uavid  met  his  Goliath,  who  had  con- 
secrated himself  to  Mammon  and  to  the  trusts  and  cor- 
porations ajid  w'hom  the  modern  Philistines  had  chosen 
as  their  King.  David  hurled  his  political  pebbles  again.st 
the  giant  and  was  ingloriously  knocked  over  and  out  by 
a  sugar  barrel.  As  yet,  the  Philistines  were  jealous  of 
Rome  and  apprehensive,  that  she  might  carry  off  the  kernels 
and  leave  to  them  the  husks.  To  succeed  in  the  next 
Democratic  National  Convention,  Mr.  Hill  needed  the  solid 
vote  of  the  delegation  of  his  State,  an  advantage  which 
he  lacked  in  1892.  To  this  end  his  reelection  as  Governor 
of  New  York  State  became  a  necessity.  His  nomination 
in  the  Fall  of  1894  was  carefully  arranged  for  and  car- 
ried with  theatrical  effect.  The  great  Protestant  wave 
which  swept  over  our  country  in  November,  1894,  buried 
David  under  the  debris  of  the  Democratic-Roman-Celtic 
party. 


CHAPTER  III 

The   Church   op   the   Poor,   Illiterate,   and   Morally 

Degraded 

section  I 

Under  the  Disguise  of  Charitableness.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  the  Romish  Church  acquired  enormous  estates  by 
threatening  the  sick  and  the  aged  with  the  terrors  of  the 
next  world  if  they  would  not  turn  over  a  large  part  of 
their  property  to  the  Church.  If  a  person's  heirs  were 
not  Roman  Catholics,  the  aged  and  the  dying  were 
admonished  that  it  was  their  duty  to  God  to  leave  their 
property  to  the  Church  instead  of  to  heretic  heirs. 

In  France,  Germany,  England,  Italy,  and  Mexico,  the 
most  careful  and  stringent  laws  have  been  enacted  to  pro- 
tect estates  against  the  rapacity  of  the  Church;  but  in 
this  country,  it  could  easily  avoid  such  laws  as  we  have 
by  establishing  Church  charities,  under  the  control  of  a 
Bishop  and  have  the  money  left  nominally  to  these  charities. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  the  Church  profited 
by  every  opportunity  offered  to  increase  its  riches  by 
legacy-hunting.  It  amassed  immense  riches  by  it.  Thou- 
sands of  cases  are  on  record  in  our  courts  where  the  Church 
robbed  the  legitimate  heirs  and  to  this  purpose  applied  all 
the  tricks,  deceptions,  perversions,  and  all  the  craftiness, 
Jesuitism  is  capable  of.  Thousands  of  cases  are  never 
heard  of.  The  process  is  steadily  going  on  all  about  us. 
The  instructions  given  in  the  secret  manual  by  the  Jesuits 
to  their  satellites,  are  to  be  on  the  watch  for  aged  people 
of  large  estates,  who  have  no  children;  or  if  they  have 
children,  then  to  excite  prejudice  against  them  and  obtain 
wills,  if  passible,  giving  their  estates  to  the  institutions 
of  the  Church. 

To  avert  suspicion,  to  allay  opposition,  and  to  bring 
Romanism  nearer  to  the  heart  of  a  charitable  people  of 
strong  instinctive  dread  of  Popery,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  practiced  deceit  and  introduced  itself  to  the 
American  nation  under  the  guise  of  charitableness.     Charity 

201 


202  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

is  the  employmcut  of  one's  own  nit-ans  for  the  good  of 
otliers.  It  is  the  lii<;hcst  Christian  virtue,  and  the  duty 
espeeially  of  all  ehurehcs;  hut  to  get  hold  of  and  use  the 
puhlic  money  to  make  a  profit,  and  to  huild  up  a  sect 
under  the  pretense  of  eharity,  is  hypocrisy,  and  in  a 
democratic  eomtnunity,  a  social  evil  and  a  political  crime. 

The  Komish  Church  in  the  United  States  stands  convicted 
of  fostering  pauperism  and  crime  for  the  sake  of  gain. 
Romish  charitableness  is  a  higlily  profitable  business  by 
which  the  Church  has  amassed  imtnense  riches  and  pos- 
sessed itself  of  large  landed  estates.  AVith  few  exceptions 
all  charitable  institutions  founded  by  this  Church  served 
but  this  one  purpose ;  the  ground  on  which  they  were 
erected  was  a  public  gift,  the  buildings  were  paid  for  by 
the  charitable  public  or  benevolent  Protestants,  and  the 
inmates  are  supported  by  contributions  or  by  public  taxes. 
At  first  the  Romish  Church  founded  hospitals  and  asylums 
as  a  matter  of  policy,  later  on  for  revenue  only.  Benevo- 
lent societies  were  organized  for  no  other  purpose  than  to 
facilitate  legacy-hunting,  to  secure  the  inheritance  of  which 
the  legal  heirs  have  been  robbed,  and  to  hide  the  Church's 
riches  from  public  view  and  from  the  tax-gatherer.  In 
the  City  of  New  York  alone  the  Romish  Church  has  drawn 
from  the  city  treasury  for  the  support  of  its  poor  and 
for  "charitable  purposes  generally"  over  $24,000,000  be- 
tween 1865  and  1894,  of  which  sum  at  least  fifty  per  cent, 
has  been  clear  profit. 

The  way  this  profit  is  secured  is  apparent  from  the 
following  example :  In  the  City  of  New  York  there  is  a 
"Foundling  Asylum  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Sisters  of 
Charity."  The  institution  is  chartered  by  the  State  and 
supported  under  cover  of  general  laws  Jesuitically  drafted 
for  the  almost  exclusive  benefit  of  Romish  institutions  and 
the  treasury  of  the  Church,  inasmuch  as  in  the  State  and 
City  of  New^  York  about  four-fifths  of  all  the  poor,  sick, 
destitute,  friendless,  infirm,  and  foundlings  being  a  public 
charge  or  within  the  scope  of  these  laws  are  either  foreign 
born  Catholics  or  of  Catholic  parentage.  The  foundlings 
in  the  above  mentioned  in>stitution  may  be  two  years  old 
when  received  by  the  "Sisters"  and  may  "board"  with 
them,  or  under  their  control  till  18  years  old  if  girls,  and 
21  years  old  if  boys.  They  may  be  indentured  to  this  in- 
stitution, if  half-orphans,  by  either  the  father  or  mother; 


ULTRAMONTANE  PARTY  AND  ROME'S  AUXILIARIES      203 

and  the  mother  may  board  there,  also,  to  look  after  the 
children.  As  to  this  provision  of  the  law  no  time  limits 
are  mentioned.  For  every  child  boarding  there,  these 
"charitable  sisters"  draw  from  the  city  treasury  $138.70 
per  year,  and  for  every  mother  boarding  there,  $216  per 
year,  total  for  a  mother  and  child,  $354.70  per  year,  besides 
having  the  work  of  the  inmates  free  of  all  charge.  This 
work  is  profitably  employed,  for  the  "Sisters"  run  so- 
called  sweat  shops  for  manufacturers  and  the  highest 
amount  of  labor  is  exacted  under  a  cruel  discipline.  The 
cost  to  the  city  of  this  Church  boarding-house  of  the 
Sisters  of  Charity  is  now  over  one  million  dollars  per  year, 
and  as  it  is  well  managed  brings  annually  not  less  than 
$600,000  net  profit  to  the  Church,  not  counting  the  large 
profits  from  the  labor  of  the  "inmates." 

The  Roman  Catholic  Protectory  in  the  same  city  nets  a 
profit  of  over  half  a  million  per  year.  So  profitable  to 
the  sect  is  the  Protectory,  that  they  keep  agents  on  the 
watch  at  each  police  court  to  induce  commitments  to  the 
institution,  and  have  had  laws  enacted  compelling  justices 
to  commit  to  it.  They  made  war  on  a  public  school  con- 
nected with  the  city  almshouse,  and,  by  act  of  Legislature 
broke  it  up  for  the  purpose  of  getting  possession  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  inmates  to  swell  their  own  numbers  and  profits. 

They  may  call  any  persons  in  their  institutions  and 
reformatory  schools  "the  poor,"  and  so  pension  them  at 
the  expense  of  the  public  treasury.  There  has  been  no 
investigation  of  their  statements  or  accounts,  or  supervision 
of  their  institutions  by  any  public  officer,  as  common  safety 
requires,  since  public  money  is  paid  them;  but  whatever 
statement  under  oath  they  choose  to  make  is  accepted  as 
the  basis  of  payment  to  them.  The  Constitution  of  New 
York  State  has  been  skillfully  drawn  to  perpetuate  this 
abuse. 


PART  VII 
PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME 

CHAPTER  I 

Roman  Aggressions  and  Hypocritical  Professions 

section  i 

Parochial  Schools.  Poverty,  illiteracy,  and  immorality 
of  the  masses  are  the  foundations  upon  which  theocracies 
have  always  reared  their  despotic  structure.  Where  "the 
many  are  trained  to  be  obedient  and  willing  to  be  directed, 
and  content  to  follow,"  that  is,  where  the  common  people 
are  held  intellectually,  spiritually,  and  politically  in  bond- 
age, there  the  priesthood  are  the  harvesters  of  all  the  people 
have  sown.  An  ecclesiastical  system  that  roots  in  spiritual 
slavery,  and  is  by  its  nature  formed  to  generate  political 
slavery,  must  oppose  the  spiritual  and  political  emancipa- 
tion of  the  masses,  and  where  the  latter  has  been  established, 
incessantly  assail  its  foundation,  that  the  system  may  be  se- 
curely planted  and  grow.  Romanism  is  such  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal system.  Therefore,  in  our  country  the  Romish  Church 
must  incessantly  assail  public  education  and  democracy, 
the  causes  of  the  spiritual  and  political  emancipation  of 
the  American  people.  The  destruction  of  our  public  school 
system,  the  bulwark  of  American  institutions,  and  the 
social  and  political  demoralization  of  the  American  people 
are  the  objective  points  of  Romish  policy  in  this  country. 
These  once  obtained,  Rome  may  supplant  our  democratic 
form  of  government  with  her  theocratic  system. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  cite  the  expressions  and  de- 
crees of  the  Romish  Church  on  the  school  question.  Its 
policy  and  the  effect  thereof  is  a  matter  of  history.  Who- 
ever has  read  history  understands  the  animus  of  the  Papacy 
in  relation  to  common  education.  Illiteracy,  and  therefore 
brutishness,  and  immorality  have  been  the  ban  of  peoples 
on  whom  the  blighting  effect  of  Romanism  had  fully  settled. 
In  the  United  States  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that  Rome 's 

204 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  KOME  205 

policy  has  always  been  one  of  avowed  hostility  to  the  public 
schools.  Her  opposition  to  them  has  been  declared  re- 
peatedly in  a  variety  of  forms.  The  show  of  sympathy 
with  education  work,  which  of  late  has  replaced  open  hos- 
tility, is  a  matter  of  wise  policy  on  the  part  of  that  Church 
to  mislead  the  American  people  and  to  prepare  public  opin- 
ion for  the  secret  ambitious  designs  of  Leo  XIII  and  prob- 
ably of  his  successors.  It  is  also  intended  as  an  entering 
wedge  to  disrupt  our  system  of  education  and,  for  the  better 
attainment  of  this  pui*pose,  to  create  the  impression  that 
Rome  has  adopted  the  American  idea  of  common  education 
as  necessary  to  the  performance  of  the  duties  which  the 
American  Government  demands  of  its  citizens.  When  for 
a  century  a  priesthood  have  defamed  and  bitterly  opposed 
our  common  schools,  it  does  not  stand  to  reason,  that  their 
sudden  conversion  is  sincere  or  anything  else  than  a 
hypocritical  profession  to  cloak  some  sinister  design.  It 
is  the  spider's  invitation  to  the  fly. 

The  doctrines  and  principles  laid  down  in  the  encyclical 
letter  of  Pius  IX  and  the  decrees  of  the  Third  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore  are  to-day  as  much  in  force  and 
binding  on  all  good  Catholics  as  they  were  before  Mgr. 
Satolli,  Archbishop  of  Lepanto,  arrived  in  this  country  as 
the  Deputy-Pope  to  teach  the  American  people  political 
wisdom,  to  interpret  their  Constitution  and  laws,  and  the 
bearer  of  a  brand  new  Papal  policy  which  is  to  dictate  to 
them  how  they  shall  conduct  their  public  schools.  Mgr. 
Satolli  politely  informed  us  that  his  Holiness  the  Pope 
dearly  loved  the  American  people  and  their  Constitution, 
and,  therefore,  graciously  consented  to  suspend  temporarily 
the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Baltimore,  provided  we  would 
turn  over  a  good  slice  of  the  school  funds  to  the  bishops, 
whose  principal  business  appears  to  be  the  handling  of 
money.  In  his  eager  desire  to  patronize  us,  Mgr.  Satolli 
forgot  to  instruct  us  about  the  praying  part  of  the  business. 
From  the  Council  of  Baltimore  we  derive  the  following 
conclusions  in  regard  to  the  public  schools: 

"1.  Catholic  parents  cannot  lawfully  send  their  children 
to  public  schools  unless  in  particular  cases  the  Bishop  of 
the  diocese  deems  it  allowable.  Hence,  if  parents  act  other- 
wise, they  violate  a  strict  law  in  a  serious  matter,  and,  con- 
sequently, are  incapable  of  absolution  from  any  priest  so 
long  as  they  continue  violating  the  law." 


206  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"2.  It  is  left  to  the  judgment  and  convenience  of  the 
Bishop  of  the  diocese  to  decide  in  what  particular  cases  an 
exception  from  the  general  law  is  allowable.  Hence  he 
may  also  once  for  all  declare,  in  such  and  such  places  or 
parts  of  his  diocese  or  in  his  whole  diocese,  there  is  no 
sufficient  cause  for  Catholic  parents  to  send  their  children 
to  public  schools;  he  may,  moreover,  add,  if  he  pleases,  in 
order  to  impress  the  law  more  deeply  on  the  minds  of  the 
faithful,  that  no  priest  has  the  power  to  absolve  in  such 
cases  within  his  diocese." 

"3.  In  places  where  there  are  such  parochial  schools, 
there  is  absolutely  no  sufficient  reason  why  Catholic  parents 
should  send  their  children  rather  to  the  public  than  to  the 
parochial  schools.  Accordingly,  the  Bishop  is  perfectly 
right  in  withholding  the  faculties  of  absolving  parents 
who  persistently  act  against  the  law  of  their  Bishop,  against 
the  laws  of  the  Baltimore  Council  and  against  their  own 
consciences. ' ' 

On  July  4,  1893,  the  "Bien  Public"  of  Ghent,  a  Catholic 
newspaper  inspired  directly  from  the  Vatican,  interpreting 
a  Papal  letter  addressed  to  Mgr,  SatoUi  in  reference  to  the 
"Faribault  plan  of  mixed  education"  of  Archbishop  Ire- 
land of  Milwaukee,  said : 

"It  follows  that  the  decrees  of  the  Plenary  Council  of 
Baltimore  constitute  the  rule  to  be  followed  always  in  the 
matter  of  schools,  and  therefore  that  the  denominational 
school  instruction,  penetrated  by  religion  and  based  on 
religion,  is  the  only  one  that  answers  the  needs  of  souls, 
the  only  one  the  Church  approves,  the  only  one  that  really 
merits  the  confidence  of  Christian  families." 

In  the  Summer  of  1894  the  Catholic  Bishops  of  England 
met  in  Plenary  Council  and  united  with  Cardinal  Vaughan, 
the  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  in  a  deliverance  on  public 
elementary  education  which  coincides  in  all  respects  with 
the  decrees  of  the  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  in  regard 
to  the  public  schools  in  this  country.  The  deliverance  in 
part  is  as  follows: 

"That,  while  political  power  and  the  responsibilities  of 
self-government  are  more  and  more  devolving  upon  the 
masses  of  the  people,  and  while  obvious  dangers  menace 
the  future  of  society,  it  is  to  the  country's  highest  advantage 
that  religious  principles  of  life  and  conduct  should  be 
deepened    and   strengthened   in   the    souls   of    all   during 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  207 

the  period  of  elementary  education,  and  that  these  advant- 
ages can  be  adequately  secured  only  by  Catholic  public 
elementary  schools,  conducted  under  Catholic  manage- 
ment. 

* '  That  Catholic  parents  cannot  in  conscience  accept  or 
approve  for  their  children  a  system  of  education  in  which 
secular  instruction  is  divorced  from  education  in  their 
religion. 

"That  Catholic  parents  cannot  in  conscience  accept  or 
approve  for  their  children  a  system  of  religious  education 
based  upon  private  interpretations  of  the  Bible  given  by 
school  teachers,  whether  trained  in  religious  knowledge  or 
not. 

"That  the  only  system  of  religious  education  which 
Catholic  parents  can  accept  for  their  children  is  that  given 
under  the  authority  and  direction  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

"That  to  take  the  management  of  schools  intended  for 
Catholic  children  out  of  the  hands  of  those  who  represent 
the  religious  conviction  of  their  parents,  and  to  place  it 
in  the  hands  of  public  ratepayers  who  cannot  represent 
those  convictions,  is  a  violation  of  parental  rights,  to  be 
resisted  as  an  unwarrantable  attack  upon  religious  liberty 
and  upon  a  fundamental  law  of  nature. 

"That  Catholic  public  elementary  schools  have  a  right 
to  as  full  a  share  of  public  money  as  any  other  public 
elementary  schools  in  the  country,  and  that  the  State  ought 
to  distribute  for  'maintenance,'  to  all  parochial  elemen- 
tary schools  an  equal  proportionate  share  of  public  money 
collected  for  public  elementary  education. 

"That  compulsory  State  education  is  an  intolerable 
tyranny,  unless  due  regard  be  paid  to  the  education  of  the 
children  in  their  own  religion." 

A  Committee  was  appointed,  with  Cardinal  Vaughan, 
Primas  of  England,  as  Chairman,  to  draft  a  bill  for  pre- 
sentation to  Parliament  providing  for  the  expenditure  in 
the  maintenance  of  Catholic  schools  of  a  proportionate  part 
of  the  public  money  raised  for  the  purpose  of  elementary 
education. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1893  a  circular  was  issued  from 
Baltimore  under  the  direction  of  Cardinal  Gibbons  and 
by  order  of  Mgr.  Satolli  to  members  of  City  Councils,  to 
members  of  the  Legislature  and  other  city  and  State  officers 
and  to  influential  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic  citizens 


208  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

in  all  the  States  in  whieh  the  Roman  Church  has  the  direc- 
tion of  numerous  Catholie  voters.  Tlie  purpose  of  the 
circular  was  to  create  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  apportion- 
ment of  Stat^  school  funds  to  Catholic  schools.  If  the 
effect  of  tile  circular  upon  the  puhlic  mind  had  heen 
favorahle  to  a  division  of  the  school  fund,  bills  making 
such  provision  were  to  be  introduced  into  the  legislative 
bodies  of  all  the  States  in  which  the  Catholics  and  their 
allied  politicians  controlled  the  State's  government.  The 
circular  closes  as  follows:  "Since  it  is  considered  by  all 
that  religion  (of  course  meaning  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion)  is  an  essential  element  of  civilization  and  the 
bulwark  of  civil  government,  we  consider  that  the  State 
in  its  educational  system  should  have  regard  for  the  right 
of  parents  to  accord  to  them  the  religious  freedom  guar- 
anteed by  the  Constitution."  Bills  had  already  been 
drafted  and  circulated  for  approval  when  the  unexpected 
defeat  of  the  Democratic  Party  at  the  Fall  elections  of 
1893  put  an  end  to  the  movement,  at  least  for  the  time 
being.  Then  the  Roman  Catholic  Prelates  and  ^Igr.  Satolli 
and  Cardinal  Gibbons  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  circular 
and  bills  and  repeatedly  stated,  that  Rome  was  not  opposed 
to  public  education  and,  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the 
Pope  and  the  mission  of  his  Deputy  to  Americanize  the 
Roman  Church  in  the  United  States.  The  duplicity  of 
Rome  in  this  matter  is  made  apparent  by  a  perusal  of  the 
"deliverance"  of  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  of  Eng- 
land. In  his  Encyclical  of  January  5,  1895,  on  American 
affairs,  Leo  XIII  expressly  upholds  the  orders  of  the 
Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  as  the  law  of  the  Church  on 
educational  matters  in  the  United  States.  The  fact  is 
that  while  the  Romish  Church  must  remain  mediaival  and 
always  foreign  and  hostile  to  Teutonic  civilization  and, 
therefore,  opposed  to  all  and  any  education  of  the  masses, 
the  secret  political  designs  of  Leo  XIII  demand  that  the 
English  speaking  people  shall  be  misled  by  professions  of 
patriotism  and  a  guarded  endorsement  of  public  education 
into  the  belief,  that  Leo  XIII  has  been  the  apostle  of  a 
new  Romanism  in  sympathy  with  intellectual  and  material 
progress  and  the  sole  protector  of  existing  society  and  of 
vested  rights  and  interests. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  209 

SECTION    II 

Our  System  of  Education.  Until  now,  our  system  of 
public  education,  though  antiquated  and  in  some  of  its  fun- 
damental principles  faulty,  has  been  a  unit  and  as  such  not 
easily  assailable  or  liable  to  disruption.  Should  Rome  be 
able  to  drive  in  her  entering  wedge  and  establish  the 
principle  of  a  division  of  the  school-funds,  the  entire 
foundation  of  the  system  would-be  taken  away,  and  it  would 
be  torn  into  as  many  divisions  as  there  are  religious  bodies 
who  have  established  sectarian  schools,  or  would  do  so.  It 
is  an  iniquitous  principle,  un-American,  unwise,  and  in 
its  consequences  it  would  destroy  the  unity  of  political 
purpose,  of  civic  sentiment,  and  of  patriotic  affection  of 
the  American  nation.  In  time  to  come,  it  would  lead  to 
the  establishment  of  a  State  Church  and  to  the  dominance 
of  that  sect  or  Church  which  would  command  the  largest, 
most  cohesive,  and  best  disciplined  body  of  voters.  There 
is  no  stopping  place  between  the  utter  destruction  of  the 
public  school  system  and  the  refusal  to  use  Government 
money  for  sectarian  instruction.  What  Rome  demands 
from  the  American  people  is  the  surrender  of  the  historic 
and  vital  principles  of  the  Government  itself,  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  Reformation,  and  the  negation  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  our  race. 

It  is  well  for  the  American  democracy  and  universal 
progress  that  the  Romish  theocracy  must  oppose  the  very 
principle  of  public  education.  This  necessity  leads  to 
grievous  errors  in  judgment  and  in  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  Vatican  and  of  the  Roman  ecclesiastical  politicians 
in  this  country.  It  moves  them  to  assail  our  public  school 
system  in  such  a  manner  as  to  insure  its  total  destruction, 
and  therefore  they  are  forced,  more  or  less,  into  an  open 
warfare,  and  to  reveal  partly  their  animus,  their  purpose, 
and  their  plans.  Could  theocracy  tolerate  even  the  rudi- 
mentary education  of  the  masses  without  endangering  its 
very  existence,  the  public  school  system  of  the  United 
States,  as  it  is  to-day,  would  rather  be  a  help  than  a 
hindrance  in  the  realization  of  Rome's  theocratic  ambitions 
and  in  her  settled  design  upon  the  life  and  freedon  of  our 
nation,  because  such  a  soulless  system,  as  we  have,  must 
lead  to  a  general  demoralization  of  the  people  and 
eventually  to  the  downfall  of  the  American  democracy. 
A  purely  secular  system  of  public  education  which  does  not 


210  CASSOCK  ANT)  SWORD 

include  the  training  of  the  youth  in  the  etliics,  which  are 
the  inheritance  of  our  race  and  were  reasserted  and  wrought 
out  anew  hy  the  Reformation,  is  not  complete  and  con- 
sistent and  does  not  guarantee  the  steady  progress  of  our 
democracy,  which,  in  common  with  the  German  universities 
and  people,  cames  the  light  and  hope  of  the  world. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  our  system  of  public  education 
does  not  improve  the  morals  of  the  people,  or  eiuioble  the 
masses ;  that  it  does  not  allay  the  tumult  of  animal  passions 
in  youtii  or  eradicate  the  diseases  of  mind  and  soul,  which 
seem  inherent  in  modem  civilization ;  that  it  does  not  set 
the  soul  of  the  nation  free  and  does  not  prepare  it  to  solve 
the  chief  problem  for  statesmanship :  the  orderly  pursuit  of 
happiness.  It  is  not  desirable  to  teach  in  the  public  schools 
the  dogmas  of  sects,  or  to  read  the  Bible,  or  to  cram  the 
children's  memory  with  religious  lore  to  fit  them  only  to 
be  loyal  to  narrow  religious  creeds,  but  it  is  necessary  to 
instil  in  their  very  being  the  economic,  moral,  and  political 
precepts  of  the  Reformation,  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  our 
race,  and  to  train  their  bodies  and  minds  as  was  never  done 
before  that  by  the  slow  progress  of  national  education  the 
future  generations  may  be  fitted  to  uphold  freedom  and  to 
advance  in  the  humane.  Our  system  of  education  must  he 
made  Protestant  in  character  and  purpose  that  the  nation 
may  preserve  its  racial  character,  and  that  the  next  genera- 
tion may  be  properly  prepared  for  the  struggle  with  Rome 
ivhich  in  the  United  States  icUl  then  also  be  a  struggle 
between  the  Teutonic  and  Celtic  and  Latin  races. 

"We  must  make  education  our  supreme  task  that  spiritual 
darkness  cannot  reach  or  harm  us.  The  teachers  of  our 
public  schools  must  think  fearlessly  and  ceaselessly,  must 
investigate  and  discuss,  must  be  left  free  of  soul  and  un- 
trammeled  and  should  be  surcharged  with  the  aggi'essive 
and  progressive  spirit  of  the  Reformation  and  of  our  race, 
that  tinith  and  the  cause  of  science  and  learning  and  with 
these  the  morality,  the  nobility,  and  the  patriotism  of  the 
nation  be  steadily  advanced. 

Unfortunately,  until  now,  we  were  befogged  by  pro- 
vincialism in  matters  educational  and  thus  remained  hidden 
to  us  what  was  clearly  discernible  to  others :  that  public 
education  in  the  United  States  is  far  behind  the  require- 
ments of  the  age,  and  that  the  richest  nation  on  earth  was 
sparing  in  expenditures  for  educational  purposes  or  rather 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  211 

suffered  corrupt  and  ignorant  officials  to  waste  the  school 
funds  or  to  misapply  them  in  the  interest  of  Jesuitism. 
While  the  poorest  village  in  Germany  and  in  parts  of  France 
has  been  provided  with  all  the  modern  educational  facilities, 
housed  in  splendid  buildings  fitted  up  with  all  appliances 
for  physical  training  to  promote  personal  cleanliness  and 
comfort,  mental  and  bodily  health,  our  public  schools  are 
to-day  in  nearly  the  same  condition  as  they  were  in  the 
days  of  our  grandfathers.  With  few  local  exceptions  our 
educational  system  is  in  method  and  appliances  antiquated. 

Purely  mechanical  teaching  or  memory-cramming  does 
not  develop  the  mind  into  independent  action,  or  talent,  or 
individuality.  Pestalozzi's  doctrine  that  education  is  an 
organic  process  has  not  invaded  our  public  school  system. 
It  became  the  foundation  of  the  educational  supremacy 
the  German  nation  has  attained  in  the  world.  In  the 
course  of  one  century  the  Pestalozzian  doctrines  have 
wrought  prodigious  changes  in  the  buildings,  the  course 
of  study,  the  preparation  of  teachers,  and  the  methods  of 
instruction,  and  made  it  the  aim  of  all  educational  institu- 
tions to  minister  to  the  possibilities  of  mental,  moral,  and 
physical  development.  Of  all  the  progressive  nations  in 
Christendom  ours  is  almost  the  only  one  that  has  not  at  all, 
or  only  slightly,  applied  these  changes  and  profited  by  them. 
We  adhered  to  methods  which  were  thought  to  have  special 
merit,  because  we  imagined  them  of  American  origin  and 
growth,  while,  in  fact,  they  are  un-American,  not  being 
in  harmony  with  the  progressive  spirit  of  our  people  and 
age. 

To  meet  Rome  successfully  in  spiritual  combat  and  to 
be  prepared  for  another  irrepressible  conflict  we  must,  first 
of  all,  reform  our  system  of  public  education,  make  it 
uniform,  nationalize  it,  rescue  it  from  the  grasp  of  the 
politicians  and  the  misapplied  zeal  and  ambition  of  the 
layman,  and  place  it  on  a  scientific  basis  and  under  the 
supervision  of  pedagogues  of  high  culture  and  character. 
We  must  educate  teachers,  restrict  the  employment  of 
females  to  industrial  instruction  and  to  the  Kindergarten, 
rebuild  our  school  houses  and  introduce  a  general  system 
of  physical  training  that  is  not  a  plaything  or  fosters  sport. 
We  must  pay  the  greatest  attention  to  the  training  of  the 
ABC  classes  because  in  the  first  years  of  school-life  a 
child's  character  is  practically  formed,   for  good  or  for 


212  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

evil,  the  mind  is  developed  in  one  or  anotlier  direction, 
and  the  foundation  is  laid  for  moral  autonomy,  which  rests 
upon  intelligence,  well-distributed  moral  aflfections  or  in- 
terest, and  ready  will.  Just  then  the  child  needs  the  strong 
guiding  hand  of  a  male  teacher  of  established  character 
and  professional  qualification. 


CHAPTER  II 

Clericalism  or  Democracy 

This  country  is  by  conquest,  colonization,  emancipation, 
and  civilization  Anglo-Saj5;on  and  Protestant.  The  republic 
was  established  by  the  heroism,  the  blood  and  the  sacrifices 
of  Protestant  Teutons.  In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
Teutons  and  Protestants  defended  the  Republic  against 
the  onslaught  of  a  power  denying  the  principle  of  govern- 
ment by  the  people  and  applying  to  the  Papacy  for  its 
secret  and  open  support,  which  was  immediately  and  readily 
granted.  Teutons  and  Protestants  saved  the  Union,  and 
they  will  maintain  it.  Therefore,  whoever  settled  or  settles 
in  this  country  must  adapt  himself  to  its  civilization.  The 
American  people  in  a  spirit  of  cosmopolitanism  received  the 
immigrants  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  but  the 
American  people  did  not  intend,  or  bargain  to  sell  their 
birthright,  or  to  change  the  form  and  qualities  of  their 
civilization  or  their  religious  principles,  which  are  a  funda- 
mental part  thereof,  or  permit  the  newcomers  to  establish 
their  civilization  and  a  religion  incompatible  with  Teu- 
tonic and,  therefore,  with  American  civilization.  Who- 
ever settled  in  this  country,  when  its  civilization  was 
established,  agreed  to  merge  into  it  and  to  accept  all  the 
consequences.  As  a  logical  deduction,  it  follows,  that  the 
children  of  such  settlers,  as  future  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  must  be  educated  in  the  principles  and  in  the  in- 
stitutions on  which  our  civilization  depends.  Therefore, 
the  constitutional  provision  granting  religious  liberty  does 
not  warrant  the  conclusion,  nor  even  admit  the  proposition, 
that  public  education  can  rest  on  any  other  principles  than 
those  fundamental  to  our  civilization. 

While  the  Constitution  grants  to  every  individual  liberty 
of  conscience,  it  does  not  grant  the  right  to  assail  our 
civilization  or  to  establish  institutions  which,  per  se, 
present  a  menace  to  it.  Consequently  the  future  citizens 
of  the  Republic  must  be  educated  in  the  public  schools  or 

213 


214  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

in  suc'li  instilutions  wliicli  aiv  coiulucted  on  the  principles 
on  wliieli  our  civilization  rests.  All  educational  institu- 
tions, such  as  paroeliial  and  private  scliools,  academies, 
colleges,  and  universities,  in  whicli  these  ])rineiples  are 
assailed  or  defied,  being  a  menace  to  our  civilization,  should 
be  permanently  closed.  Teachers  who  have  been  educated 
and  trained  in  principles  foreign  to  our  civilization  and 
liostile  to  it  should  not  be  permitted  to  follow  their  calling 
in  the  United  States.  The  intent  of  the  fraraers  of  the 
Constitution  was  clearly  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  a 
State  Church  but  they  never  intended  to  weaken  that  which 
supports  our  civilization.  Protestantism  and  racial  tradi- 
tions. They  never  intended  that  a  Church,  assailing  tiiese 
and  denying  the  principle  of  Government  by  the  people, 
and  theocratic  in  form  and  in  spirit,  should  ever  be  per- 
mitted to  encroach  upon  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Constitution  under  cover  of  one  of  its  Articles  or  to 
establish  a  superstition  which  is  in  contravention  of  the 
progressive  and  enlightened  ideas  expressed  in  said  Article. 
These  deductions  cannot  be  overturned  by  hypocritical 
declarations  against  bigotry  or  empty  affirmations  of  loy- 
alty. 

These  principles  have  been  adopted  by  the  U.  S.  Supreme 
Court  and  were  enforced  by  our  Government.  They  have 
found  expression  in  the  jMonroe  doctrine,  in  the  laws  enacted 
against  Mormon  polygamy,  against  the  Chinese  immigra- 
tion, and  for  the  regulation  of  immigration  generall}^  and 
naturalization.  According  to  these  principles,  recognized 
by  all  civilized  nations  and  expressed  in  international  law, 
every  nation  is  justified  in  maintaining  its  civilization  and, 
to  this  purpose,  and  for  its  own  salvation,  must  claim  and 
exercise  the  right  to  exclude,  forcibly  if  necessary,  all 
elements,  institutions,  organic  bodies,  and  individuals  not 
in  harmony  with  the  principles,  purposes,  and  form  of 
its  government. 

Every  civilized  nation  recognized  the  right  of  Russia 
to  exclude  the  Jews  from  her  territory  and  to  Russianize 
the  Poles,  by  conquest  acquired  as  subjects,  because  they 
were  heterogenous  elements  in  her  economic,  social,  and 
political  organism.  The  French  Concordat  expres.sly  and 
carefully  guarded  against  any  interference  by  the  Romish 
Church  with  the  principles  on  which,  since  the  revolution, 
French  society  rests.     Furthermore,  the  principles,  above 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  215 

set  forth,  have  been  enforced  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
whenever  it  got  possession  of  the  temporal  power  or  wher- 
ever the  temporal  or  civil  power,  though  separate  from  it, 
has  been  subordinate  to  it — in  France  at  the  time  of  the 
slaughter  of  the  Waldenses,  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, of  the  revocation  of  the  ' '  Edict  of  Nantes, ' '  and 
of  the  "Dragonades";  in  the  Netherlands  during  the  reign 
of  Phillip  II ;  in  Spain  during  the  tortures  for  heresy,  the 
burning  at  the  stake  under  the  Inquisition,  and  through 
the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  and  Jews.  In  all  countries 
where  Rome  had  or  has  the  power,  no  school  has  been  or  is 
allowed  to  exist,  nor  is  any  one  allowed  to  teach,  unless 
first  approved  and  permitted  by  her.  We  point  here  to 
the  fate  of  the  great  Spanish  educator  Ferrer  who  a  few 
years  ago  on  the  instigation  of  the  priests  was  shot  to  death 
by  order  of  courtmartial.  In  those  cities  of  the  United 
States  over  which  Rome  ruled  or  rules  supreme,  as  for 
instance  in  New  York,  she  has  insistently  through  her  politi- 
cal tools  sought  to  direct  the  appointment  of  teachers.  Many 
schools  have  been  closed  and  teachers  punished  in  Italy, 
Spain,  Mexico,  and  in  the  South-American  States,  for  at- 
tempting to  go  on  teaching  without  her  approval  and 
permission.  The  Roman  theocracy  knows  well  that  the 
only  sure  way  to  make  the  human  mind  accept  the  irrational 
dogmas  and  practices  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  give  the 
priests  absolute  and  despotic  power  over  the  minds  and 
consciences  of  the  communicants,  is  to  twist,  squeeze,  com- 
press, and  distort  the  mind,  while  young  and  plastic,  into 
the  molds  and  forms  prepared  by  the  priests  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  Hence  Cardinal  Antonelli's  declaration  that  "the 
Catechism  alone  was  essential  for  the  education  of  the  peo- 
ple." 

No  Protestant  Church  M'as  allowed  in  the  Papal  States; 
and  even  the  ambassadors  and  foreign  ministers  resident, 
in  order  to  have  worship  in  their  own  respective  faitlis,  were 
required  to  have  their  chapels  either  actually  or  con- 
structively under  their  own  roofs.  The  possession  of  a 
Bible,  or  of  any  book  or  pamphlet  placed  in  the  Prohibitory 
and  Expurgatory  indices  by  the  Congregation  of  the  Index, 
was  punishable  with  long  imprisonment  or  banishment. 
Of  course  the  people  of  the  Papal  States  could  neither 
read  nor  write.  In  every  country,  whether  monarchy  or 
republic,  where  the  Church  has  obtained  the  power,  it  has 


210  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

excluded  all  other  forms  of  worship,  and  made  public 
worship  iu  any  other  form  than  its  own  a  crime  severely 
punishable.  Under  the  present  Constitution  of  the  Romish 
Church  it  cannot  change  these  guiding  and  ruling  princi- 
ples, even  if  it  would,  for  that  would  destroy  the  doctrine 
of  infallibility  and,  it  cannot  refuse  obedience  to  this 
doctrine,  without  ceasing  to  be  itself  and  removing  from  its 
theocratic  structure  the  crowning  arch.  Thus  in  the  Papal 
States,  in  which  the  Romish  Church  possessed  all  the  powers, 
spiritual  and  temporal,  it  carried  into  effect  in  all  its  con- 
sequences and  with  punitive  hand  the  doctrine  that  govern- 
ments have  the  right  to  exclude  all  elements  and  institu- 
tions not  in  harmony  with  the  principles  on  which  said 
governments  are  established. 

The  American  people,  follo^^'ing  the  example  of  the 
Papacy,  are  therefore  justified,  whenever  the  necessity  ar- 
rives, to  exclude  from  their  territory  the  Romish  Church, 
its  hierarchy  and  priesthood,  to  withdraw  the  right  of 
citizenship  from  all  Roman  Catholics,  to  regulate  and  pre- 
scribe public  education  in  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation 
and  of  our  race,  and  to  enfore  compulsory  education  in 
the  public  institutions  on  all  children  without  distinction 
as  to  creed  and  descent. 

Whether  such  extreme  measures  may  be  necessary,  the 
nearest  future  must  teach.  If  the  Romish  Church  in  this 
country  remains  what  it  is,  theocratic  in  structure  and 
mediaeval  in  spirit,  and  subject  to  an  infallible  being;  if 
it  cannot  be  separated  from  the  Papacy  and  from  Jesuitism 
and  become  democratic  in  spirit  and  hence  too  in  its  con- 
stitution and  administration,  it  must  share  the  fate  of 
another  institution,  which  was  foreign  to  our  civilization 
and  challenged  the  spirit  of  the  age,  slavery;  or  we  must 
expect  the  priesthood  to  wage  perpetual  war  upon  our  public 
schools,  to  make  persistent  attacks  on  the  public  treasury, 
to  persevere  in  their  attempts  to  control  the  civil  power, 
and  to  jeopardize  our  rights  and  liberties  until  the  ambitious 
designs  of  Leo  XIII  and  of  his  successors  and  of  the  Jesuits 
are  carried  to  success  over  the  grave  of  the  American 
democracy. 

The  school  question  is  only  a  part  of  the  greater  question, 
how  to  withstand  the  settled  design  of  Rome  to  conquer 
an  Anglo-Saxon  empire  and  nation,  to  overturn  our  de- 
mocratic   Government    and    to   substitute    her    theocratic 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  217 

despotism.  It  is  part  of  the  question  whether  our  country- 
shall  be  Celticized  and  Romanized  and  sink  beneath  the 
yoke  of  clericalism  or  whether  it  shall  remain  the  home  of 
a  nation  free  of  soul  and  standing  upon  the  mountain 
top  of  opportunity. 

Great  issues  in  the  life  of  nations  must  culminate  before 
the  masses  are  ripe  to  deal  with  them.  The  great  issue  of 
Guelf  or  Ghibelline,  now  before  us,  must  also  reach  the 
culminating  point  before  its  find  settlement  can  be  at- 
tempted. Constitutional  provisions  and  anti-clerical  laws, 
through  which  Jesuitical  cunning  drives  four-in-hand, 
secret  societies  and  sporadic  political  efforts  are  measures 
well  enough  taken  to  sustain  political  agitation  and  to 
prevent  a  dormant  condition  of  American  society,  allowing 
the  theocratic  power  to  steal  upon  the  people  unawares, 
but  they  suffice  not  to  eradicate  a  cancerous  growth  which 
roots  in  the  economic  and  social  heresies  of  the  age  and  is 
made  virulent  by  the  general  demoralization  of  society. 
Like  slavery,  this  cancerous  growth  must  be  extirpated  by 
the  surgeon's  knife.  Meanwhile  our  duty  should  be  to 
locate  and  study  all  its  connections  with  apparently  healthy 
tissue,  and  to  so  regulate  the  patient's  mode  of  life  and 
health  as  to  enable  him  to  pass  through  the  inevitable  or- 
deal. The  slavocracy  of  the  South  was  conquered  because 
the  generation  of  Northerners,  called  upon  to  fight  the 
battles  of  democracy,  was  educated  in  schools  in  which 
Protestantism  was  a  living,  active,  patriotic  force. 

Protestantism,  as  a  living,  active,  hold  and  aggressive 
force,  as  a  patriotic,  progressive,  and  humane  power,  must 
instil  in  the  minds  of  our  youth  the  courage  of  conviction 
and  of  holy  passion  which  alone  moves  the  masses  to  battle 
over  matters  spiritual  and  temporal  and  to  strive  for  the 
prize  of  victory :  spiritual  freedom  and  a  humane  existence. 
First  of  all,  we  must  reorganize  our  system  of  public  educa- 
tion so  that  by  a  harmonious  combination  of  teaching  and 
investigation  it  will  arouse  all  the  affections  of  the  heart 
and  harvest  the  fruits  of  reason,  develop  a  strong  individu- 
ality and  patriotic  fervor,  and  prepare  our  youth  to  serve, 
in  manhood,  the  common  weal  and  not  self  and  Baal. 
Otherwise  Rome  will  seize  full  control  of  our  system  of 
education  and  use  it  for  her  evil  purposes.  Already  voices 
are  heard  within  the  Romish  Church  which  loudly  call  for 
a  change  in  its  policy  in  regard  to  our  schools.     It  is  pointed 


218  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

out,  that  the  policy  of  maintaining  parochial  schools  is  an 
error  and,  that  the  public  school  system  and  secular  educa- 
tion, as  now  conducted  and  practiced,  best  prepare  the  way 
for  Home.  Let  us  hear  wiiat  the  Reverend  editor  of  the 
"Western  Watdinuui,"  a  prominent  Catholic  organ,  has  to 
say: 

"There  is  to  be  a  new  alignment  on  the  school  question. 
The  Faribault  plan  is  no  longer  under  discussion.  The 
rallying  cry  is  now  'Denominational  education,'  Arch- 
bishop Ryan,  Archbishop  Corrigan,  Cardinal  Gibbons,  and 
Bishop  Keane  of  the  Washington  University  are  the  leaders 
in  this  new  movement.  In  this  conflict  which  is  now  upon 
us  the  'Watchman'  must  stand  alone.  "We  are  unalterably 
of  the  conviction  that  the  denominational  system  is  the 
very  worst  that  could  be  devised.  We  have  no  hesitancy 
in  stating  that  the  present  purely  secular  system  is  the 
very  best  that  could  be  adopted.  We  cannot  agree  to  a 
school  fund  (under  a  system  of  division  to  creeds),  nine- 
tenths  of  which  is  to  go  for  immoral  purposes  and  one- 
tenth  for  a  good  and  holy  end.  We  might  a.s  well  go  the 
whole  length.  .  .  .  There  is  no  stopping  once  the  denomina- 
tional wedge  is  inserted.  .  .  .  The  moment  you  recognize 
the  denominational  claim  that  moment  you  make  a  co- 
partnership in  spirituals  with  the  enemies  of  the  faith.  But 
if  there  were  no  objections  to  the  system  on  moral  grounds 
it  would  be  most  reprehensible  on  grounds  of  ex- 
pediency. .  .  . 

"We  are  so  convinced  of  the  truth  and  wisdom  of  our 
position  that  we  would  not  hesitate  to  come  out  against  all 
our  former  friends  to  defend  it.  We  are  well  aware  that 
the  Holy  Father  and  his  august  representative  in  this 
country  are  partial  to  the  denominational  system  of  educa- 
tion: but  it  shall  not  be  our  fault  if  they  are  not  made 
aware  of  the  ruinous  disadvantages  of  the  arrangement." 

Other  influential  priests  are  of  the  same  opinion  as  the 
editor  of  the  "Watchman,"  that  our  present  system  of 
secular  education  which  does  not  include  the  moral  train- 
ing of  youth  in  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  and  of  our 
race,  and  permits  the  employment  of  monks  and  nuns,  and 
of  Roman  Catholic  teachers  trained  in  the  institutions  of 
the  Church  or  faithful  to  it,  is  much  better  adapted  to 
the  purposes  of  Rome  than  a  system,  under  which  the 
school  fund  would  be  divided  among  all  denominations. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  ROME  219 

Of  such  a  system  of  division  the  editor  of  the  "Watchman" 
says:  "It  would  give  us  ten  Protestant  bigots  for  every 
child  receiving  a  knowledge  of  the  catechism.  It  would 
give  employment  to  a  hundred  thousand  ignorant  and 
bigoted  preachers  to  disseminate  their  creeds  and  leave  us 
to  combat  among  grown  people  the  lies  the  State  has  in- 
stilled in  their  minds  in  youth." 


PART  VIII 

LEO  XIII  AND  THE  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OP  THE 

PAPACY 

CHAPTER  I 

Papal  Hope  and  Papal  Delusion 

section  i — innominato's  vision 

Bishop  Cox  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  a 
letter  to  Mgr.  Satolli  says:  "It  is  a  well  known  fact,  one 
recognized  by  all  the  European  governments  and  the  pro- 
gressive element  throughout  Christendom,  that  the  Vatican 
and  therefore  the  Catholic  Church  is  ruled  by  the  most 
formidable  political  machine  that  ever  disturbed  the  peace 
of  nations.  You  represent  a  court,  not  a  religion.  The 
'Society  of  Loyola,'  which  it  is  a  sort  of  sacrilege  to 
call  the  'Society  of  Jesus,'  became  in  a  short  time  the 
'Society  of  Laynez,'  who,  grasping  the  military  system  of 
the  institution,  turned  it  away  from  its  original  design  into 
a  society  of  conspirators  for  obtaining  universal  dominion 
over  the  monarchies  of  Europe.  All  the  Roman  Catholic 
governments  were  forced  to  expel  the  Jesuits  as  the  first 
law  of  self-preservation.  Finally  they  united  in  an  appeal 
to  Pope  Clement  XIV  to  suppress  and  abolish  them  on 
the  ground  that  there  would  be  no  peace  in  Church  or 
State  so  long  as  they  were  in  existence.  In  language  more 
intolerant  of  their  crimes  than  any  words  of  mine  that 
good  Pontiff  abolished  them  accordingly.  But  infallibility 
is  not  infallible  apart  from  Jesuit  inspiration.  They  found 
means  to  restore  themselves;  and  here  they  are  among  us 
practicing  on  the  defenseless  features  of  our  Constitution, 
which  they  only  admire  because  it  gives  them  every  facility 
for  destroying  it." 

When  Clement  XIV,  who  w^as  one  of  the  most  liberal  of 
Pontiffs,  inspired  by  the  true  love  of  Christ,  signed  the 
bill  abolishing  the  Order,  he  also  signed  his  own  death 

220 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         221 

warrant — a  few  days  later  he  died  of  poison.  The  whole 
civilized  world  charged  the  "Order  of  Laynez"  with  the 
crime.  The  assassins  fled  to  the  vastness  of  Paraguay  in 
South  America,  where  to  the  world  till  then  unknown,  the 
Order  had  quietly  reared  a  theocratic  State  and  enslaved 
millions  of  the  aborigines. 

In  all  the  political  works  of  the  modem  Jesuit  authors 
"von  Hammerstein,"  "Gury,"  "Cathrein,"  "Costa  Ro- 
setti, ' '  etc.,  the  doctrine  of  Papal  temporal  supremacy  over 
all  the  governments  of  the  earth  is  boldly  advanced  and 
defended  as  a  divine  law.  Count  Paul  von  Hoensbroech, 
a  German  Jesuit  of  an  old  Catholic  family,  who  some  time 
ago  left  the  Order,  in  an  article  explanatory  of  his  action 
and  published  in  the  Preussische  Jahrhuecher,  states  that  he 
continues  steadfastly  in  the  Christian  faith,  but  that  he  has 
ceased  to  be  a  Catholic,  because  from  the  date  of  the  adoption 
of  the  dogma  of  the  infallibility  Catholicism  and  Jesuitism 
became  identical  and  inseparable  through  the  modern 
EVOLUTION  OF  THE  Papacy  ;  that,  as  a  German  citizen,  he 
could  no  longer  remain  a  member  of  an  Order  and  of  a 
Church  that  aim  at  the  destruction  of  his  nationality  and 
attempt  a  universal  temporal  dominion  or  despotism  on  the 
ruins  of  modern  civilization. 

Before  the  election  of  1893  and  the  organization  of  the 
anti-Catholic  movement  in  this  country,  when  the  repeated 
successes  of  the  Democratic  Party  led  the  Roman  Camarilla 
into  the  fatal  error,  that  the  American  people  had  lost  faith 
and  manhood  and  that,  on  a  soil  saturated  Avith  corruption, 
the  Upas  tree  of  Papism  had  already  become  deeply  rooted, 
the  Jesuits  set  aside  their  almost  reptile  wariness  and 
crowed  loud  and  lustily  over  the  rapid  spread  of  Romanism 
in  the  United  States.  Swelled  with  exultation  they  dis- 
closed their  plans  and  ultimate  purpose  in  a  series  of  letters 
signed  "Innominato"  and  published  in  the  New  York  Suti, 
the  official  organ  of  the  Romish-Irish  hierarchy  in  this 
country  and  of  Jesuitism  generally. 

"Innominato,"  a  German  priest  of  great  learning  and  a 
literary  star  of  the  first  order,  as  the  mouthpiece  of  Leo 
XIII  was  intrusted  with  a  twofold  mission — that  of  influenc- 
ing the  cultured  in  this  country  in  favor  of  Jesuitism,  and 
of  disclosing  to  the  Roman-Irish-American  hierarchy  the 
gigantic  plans  of  the  Vatican  in  reference  to  this  country, 
that  these  somewhat  shortsighted  and  sluggish  gentlemen 


222  CASSOCK  ANT)  SWORD 

whose  diplomatic  erudition  is  of  the  Corkonian  and  not  of 
the  Machiavellian  kind,  nii^'ht  i)erceive  the  pressing  neces- 
sities of  the  Papacy,  the  dan^'ers  of  a  political  character 
threatening  it  in  Europe,  and  tlioroughly  understand  the 
whole  scope  and  purport  of  Consignor  Satolli's  mission  to 
the  end  that  they  should  cease  to  badger  the  Italian  prelate 
and  diplomatist  in  a  spirit  of  selfishness,  of  Irish  arrogance 
and  cussedness,  or  to  oppose  his  authority.  The  ambitious, 
aye,  towering  plans  of  the  Vatican  were  particularly  dis- 
closed in  a  correspondence  dated  Rome,  June  8,  1893.  Ex- 
tracts from  this  most  important  communication,  signed 
"Innominato, "  are  as  follows: 

"When  Leo  XIII,  induced  by  circumstances,  set  about 
studying  the  American  question,  he  had  two  ideas :  to  con- 
tribute to  the  work  of  national  unification,  and  to  bring  the 
Church  in  line  with  democracy  and  the  institutions  of  the 
United  States.  This  grand  and  noble  design  coincided  with 
the  memorable  instructions  which  he  issued  for  France,  with 
his  teachings  on  the  social  question  and  the  organization  of  a 
new  state  of  things.  He  found  America  on  his  route,  like 
a  luminous  lighthouse  on  the  shore  of  the  immense  ocean. 
There  are  mysterious  and  fruitful  coincidences  which  decide 
the  fate  of  a  man  and  the  destiny  of  a  reign. 

"The  United  States,  so  thoroughhj  understood  by  the 
Pontiff,  furnish  him  with  a  model  to  look  upon  and  to 
imitate,  and  also  with  an  occasion  for  inter^'ention,  because 
in  the  United  States  it  was  his  mission  to  maintain  that 
which  it  was  necessary  to  implant  elsewhere.  Let  us  not 
forget,  therefore,  that  for  every  observer,  the  American 
directions  of  the  Holy  Father  are  closely  linked  with  the 
whole  modern  evolution  of  the  Papacy. 

"Now,  here  is  the  last  act  of  this  international  drama, 
of  which  the  United  States,  in  spite  of  themselves,  have 
furnished  the  principal  motive.  When  Leo  XIII  by  the 
formation  of  a  permanent  apostolic  delegation,  affirmed  his 
irrevocable  design  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between 
the  Church  and  democracy,  the  conservatives  and  the  lead- 
ers of  the  opposition  held  on  to  a  final  hope.  The  Ameri- 
cans of  the  old  school,  the  tradueers  of  the  intentions  of  the 
Pope,  will  perhaps  be  surprised  at  his  designs;  but  the 
day  has  now  arrived  when  the  veils  which  hide  the  essence 
of  the  debate  from  the  public  must  be  torn  away.  When 
Mgr.  SatoUi  submitted  the  Pope's  instructions  to  the  Arch- 


LEO  XIII  AND  ^lODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         223 

bishops  assembled  in  New  York  on  the  16th  of  November 
last,  the  enemies  believed  that  they  had  a  favorable  field  to 
fight  upon.  .  .  . 

"When,  as  the  envoy  of  the  Pope,  Mgrr.  Ireland,  Arch- 
bishop of  ^Milwaukee,  last  year  performed  the  delicate  task 
of  preaching  to  Frenchmen  the  love  of  the  republic  and  of 
democracy,  the  friends  of  Rome  proclaimed  that  the  great 
Archbishop  had  advanced  the  triumph  of  European  democ- 
racy by  fifty  years.  ...  It  was  especially  in  France  that 
they  (Leo's  opponents  within  the  Church)  looked  for  a  re- 
bound which  would  sever  the  bonds  that  linked  her  to  the 
leading  ideas  of  Leo  XIII.  (The  elections  in  France  suc- 
ceeding this  letter  were  such  a  rebound).  .  .  . 

"We  are  assured  that  Leo  XIII,  on  becoming  aware  of  all 
these  transactions  (meaning  the  intrigues  and  opposition 
of  the  Romish-Irish  hierarchy  in  the  United  States  against 
]Mgr.  Satolli),  caused  an  inquiry  to  be  made,  and  that  his 
mind  became  fixed  upon  this  campaign.  What  has  he 
learned  ?  I  shall  not  attempt  to  find  out.  But  the  fact  is 
indubitable,  that  Leo  XIII  will  be  henceforth  inflexible  and 
intractable.  The  battle  is  won.  It  is  certain  that  he  will 
maintain  all  the  rigor  of  his  instructions  and  all  the  univer- 
sality of  his  designs.  The  last  crisis  has  been  passed 
through.  That  which  was  intended  to  weaken  or  to  annihi- 
late his  policy,  has  only  increased  it  by  resistance,  just  as 
resistance  increases  the  volume  of  the  mountain  torrents. 

"Approaching  events  will  reveal  this  immutable  will  of 
the  Holy  Father.  To  protect  Mgr.  Satolli:  to  lighten, 
according  to  the  measure  of  his  strength,  the  burden  of  his 
mission,  to  maintain  and  continue  his  line  in  regard  to 
democracy  and  the  school  question  in  the  United  States ;  to 
second  as  much  as  possible  for  the  general  interests,  the 
work  of  conciliation  between  the  church,  democracy,  and 
the  republic ;  to  close  the  door  to  opponents,  and  to  open  it 
to  faithful  adepts;  to  enlarge,  express  more  precisel.y,  and 
follow  without  respite  and  without  wavering  his  French 
instructions  and  his  general  policy,  such  is  his  ideal,  such  is 
his  invincible  design.  Woe  to  those  who  would  try  to 
oppose  it!  The  patience  of  Leo  XIII  is  great,  but  it  has 
its  bounds.  Things  and  men  must  bow  before  his  irre- 
vocable firmness. 

"And  the  reason  is  that  the  soul  of  the  great  Pontiflf  is 
made  of  iron.     When  men  lay  hands  upon  his  historical 


224  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ideas,  when  they  seek  to  bend  the  straight  lines  of  his  sys- 
tem, and  to  squander  his  political  and  intellectual  patri- 
mony, his  mildness  is  turned  into  determination.  Touch 
not  that  sanctuary ! 

"In  the  second  place  Leo  XIII  has  the  vision  of  the 
future.  He  loves  the  United  States  as  one  might  love  an 
ideal,  when  fortunate  enough  to  believe  in  an  ideal  and  to 
fight  for  it  alone. 

"Behind  the  worm-eaten  construction  of  the  past,  beyond 
the  horizon  of  the  present  day,  he  gazes  upon  the  edifice 
of  the  future,  the  horizon  of  the  morrow.  He  considers  him- 
self the  promulgator  of  this  civilization  of  the  future;  and, 
as  the  United  States  furnish  him  with  a  comparison  and  with 
material  for  incitation,  he  has  an  imperishable  attachment 
for  the  particular  work  which  he  is  carrying  on  across  the 
ocean. 

"History  will  one  day  tell  all  the  truth  about  this  intel- 
lectual and  moral  affiliation  which  exists  between  the  Amer- 
ican policy  of  Leo  XIII  and  the  evolution  of  the  Papacy  in 
the  Old  World. 

"Leo  XIII  and  the  United  States!  What  a  beautiful 
chapter  I  would  wish  to  write  one  day  upon  that  subject, 
with  my  faith,  my  admiration,  and  my  heart!" 

SECTION   II 

The  Dogma  of  the  Infallibility  and  Clerical  Absolutism. 

When  the  Jesuits  conceived  the  dogma  of  the  infallibility 
they  were  moved  by  two  powerful  considerations.  They 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  spirit  of  skepticism  of  the  Nine- 
teenth century  arose  from  the  progress  in  science  and,  there- 
fore, cannot  be  suppressed  by  inquisitorial  means  or 
measures  enacted  as  laws  by  the  temporal  authorities  be- 
cause the  results  of  scientific  research  have  entered  into  all 
the  walks  of  life  and  have  become  an  indispensable  part 
thereof,  benefiting  individuals  and  society.  That  which 
has  become  an  organic  part  of  the  life-blood  of  nations  can- 
not be  destroyed  without  causing  convulsions  of  the  body 
politic,  endangering  its  very  existence  and  even  that  of  the 
agencies  of  extermination. 

It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  present  to  the  masses,  as 
yet  unable  to  clearly  distinguish  between  the  natural  and 
the  supernatural,  a  doctrine  effectually  counteracting  the 
results  of  scientific  research  on  the  reasoning  faculties  of 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         225 

the  masses  before  the  logical  deductions  of  these  results  and 
their  splendor  had  taken  hold  of  the  imagination  and  of 
reason  to  such  a  degree  as  to  destroy  in  the  masses  all  belief 
in  the  supernatural.  Could  the  idea  of  the  earthly  exist- 
ence of  an  infallible  being  be  instilled  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  who  daily  witnessed  the  demonstrations  of  science, 
the  ethical  effect  of  these  demonstrations  on  the  masses  might 
not  only  be  neutralized,  but  they  could  be  proclaimed  the 
outpouring  of  the  omnipotent  and  omniscient  Supreme  being 
personified  and  visible  in  the  Pontiff.  The  dogma  of  the 
infallibility  was  proclaimed  as  an  antidote  against  the 
inroads  of  scientific  research  to  fortify  the  Papacy. 

In  an  age  of  revolutionary  surprises,  of  economic  and 
social  progress,  of  individualism,  and  of  irresistible  demo- 
cratic assertions,  a  theocratic  institution,  subject  to  the 
decrees  of  councils  or  assemblages  constitutional  in  concep- 
tion and  possibly  democratic  in  character,  was  open  to  attack 
at  any  time  and  in  danger  of  disruption  by  agencies  already 
in  existence  or  apt  to  be  developed.  Since  the  enforcement 
of  celibacy  the  Church  had  gradually  lost  its  democratic 
character.  Nevertheless,  it  maintained  in  its  organization 
as  a  constituent  part  thereof  and,  nominally,  as  its  supreme 
governing  body,  the  ecumenical  Council.  For  centuries 
this  parliamentary  body  had  been  manipulated  by  the 
Jesuits  to  enhance  Papal  authority  and  to  centralize  the 
Church's  government.  Yet,  by  its  very  composition,  the 
Council  was  more  or  less  subject  to  influences  hostile  or 
inimical  to  the  Papacy ;  its  members  were  more  or  less  sub- 
servient to  the  princes  and  peoples  under  whose  authority 
they  lived  and  from  whom  their  temporalities  were  derived. 
The  Papacy  could  not  be  entirely  independent  so  long  as  a 
popular  assembly,  whereof  a  majority  might  defy  the  Pope, 
regulated  matters  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  or  claimed  the 
authority  to  do  so.  In  countries,  in  which  the  State  paid 
the  expenses  of  the  Church,  including  the  salaries  of  its 
clergy  and  hierarchy,  and  the  appointments  to  the  benefices 
were  regulated  by  a  Concordat,  or  laws  enacted  by  Parlia- 
ment, the  prelates  might  place  their  interests  above  those  of 
the  Papacy  and  vote  for  measures  of  great  political  import 
foreign  to  the  purposes  of  the  Papal  court  or  of  the  Jesuits. 
In  republican  or  democratic  countries  in  which  the  Church 
has  no  legal  or  exceptional  status  and  is  in  fact  and  to  all 
purposes  a  private  institution,  dependent  on  the  pleasure 


226  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  support  of  a  fickle  populace,  the  incentive  to  independ- 
ent action  by  the  Prelates  was  ever  more  powerful,  and  so 
long  as  they  remained  within  the  canon  law  and  commanded 
the  confidence  and  fealty  of  their  flock,  the  Papal  court  had 
not  the  means  to  discipline  them. 

The  elections  of  Popes  were  more  or  less  influenced  by 
the  Great  Powers  under  covenants  which  were  binding  on 
the  electors  living  under  the  jurisdiction  of  these  powers 
or  appointed  by  them  or  w'ith  their  coasent.  A  theocratic 
structure  of  which  the  head  is  not  clothed  with  the  attributes 
of  Deity,  that  is  with  absolute  power  and  infallibility,  is 
an  anomaly,  a  structure  without  a  crowning  arch,  an  army 
without  an  independent  commander.  The  proclamation  of 
the  dogma  of  the  infallibility,  and  its  acceptance  by  the 
faithful,  removed  all  these  unfavorable  conditions  and 
changed  the  Papacy  from  an  elective  constitutional  mon- 
archy into  an  absolute  despotism,  with  a  succession  entirel}' 
under  the  control  of  the  Papal  court.  This  has  been  the 
evolution  of  the  Papacy,  the  establishment  of  a  clerical  abso- 
lutism. 


CHAPTER  II 
Leo  Xm 

Future  historians  will  place  Leo  XIII  on  a  plane  with  the 
great  Popes  who  inaugurated  a  new  Papal  policy,  with  Leo 
III,  Gregory  VII,  Innocent  III,  and  SLxtus  V.  He  is  one 
of  the  few  statesmen  of  historical  times  who  had  prescience 
of  the  great  evolutions  of  mankind  and  attempted  in  their 
lifetime  so  to  shape  the  economic,  social,  and  political  insti- 
tutions of  their  people  or  race  as  to  make  the  transitional 
period  one  of  little  friction  and  least  destructive  to  vested 
interests  and  to  the  organic  bodies  that  were  the  beneficiar- 
ies thereof.  To  Leo's  subtle  mind  it  was  apparent  that  in 
the  course  of  nature  the  present  social  order  is  doomed,  that 
before  many  generations  have  passed  into  eternity  the 
human  race  under  the  leadership  of  the  Teutonic  nations 
will  make  one  of  those  gigantic  strides  which  in  the  history 
of  mankind  have  always  been  preceded  by  economic  and 
social  chaos  and  accompanied  by  terrible  convulsions. 

Placed  at  the  head  of  a  theocratic  institution,  which  has 
outlived  a  thousand  years  and  is  one  of  the  three  most 
wonderful  institutions  of  the  world,  Leo  XIII  found  him- 
self, so  far  as  the  execution  of  his  plans  for  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  society  was  concerned,  in  a  peculiar  position,  with 
few  of  the  political  chances  of  success  enjoyed  by  Leo  III 
and  Gregor}^  VII,  and  face  to  face  with  economic  and  so- 
cial conditions  entirely  different  from  those  which  made 
the  policy  of  Sixtus  V  possible.  It  is  a  herculean  task  in 
the  age  of  science  and  democracy  both  to  assail  the  power 
of  the  vested  interests  of  centuries  growth  and  to  trample 
down  the  liberties  of  the  people. 

Leo  III  established  the  political  Papacy,  Gregory  VII  the 
Roman  theocracy,  Innocent  III  the  political  supremacy  of 
the  Pontiff,  and  Sixtus  V  the  political  supremacy  of  the 
Latin  race.  Each  lived  in  an  age  when  faith  in  the  super- 
natural was  general  and  adhered  to  by  all  civilized  nations 
and  classes  of  society.  Therefore,  they  had  a  proper  sub- 
stratum for  their  structures.     Leo  XIII  lived  in  the  age  of 

227 


228  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

science,  in  wliioh  society  as  a  unit  no  longer  rests  on  faith  in 
tlie  supernatural  nor  believes  the  social  order  to  be  of  divine 
origin.  The  educational  influences  of  an  age  in  which 
science  denies  the  divine  origin  of  the  Universe  and  a  divine 
purpose  in  its  government,  an  age,  in  which  the  question 
is  no  longer  whether  the  Pope  shall  rule  in  Rome  but  whether 
God  shall  rule  in  Heaven,  are  not  propitious  to  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  society  as  Leo  XIII  foresaw  it  in  his  creative  mind, 
and  for  which  he  had  been  shaping  the  Papal  policy  since 
he  entered  the  succession  of  St.  Peter. 

Vincenzo  Giachimo  Count  Pecci,  Pope  Leo  XIII,  was  of 
dual  character,  of  an  odd  elementary  composition,  illustrat- 
ing certain  phases  of  the  intellectual,  economic,  and  political 
progress  of  the  last  century,  an  aristocratic  revolutionist 
and  a  revolutionary  priest.  Intellectually  and  passionately 
Count  Pecci  represented  an  epoch  of  transition  in  the 
spiritual  and  political  life  of  the  Latin  race  and  especially 
of  his  people,  an  epoch  which  commenced  with  the  French 
revolution  and  ended  with  the  revolutionary  movement  of 
1848.  As  Pope,  Count  Pecci  represented  the  traditions  of 
ten  centuries,  theocracy  and  the  policy  of  non  possumus. 

He  passed  through  youth  and  early  manhood  when 
Austria  was  the  great  external  adversary  of  Italian  inde- 
pendence, an  alp  pressing  the  national  soul ;  when  his  nation 
was  struggling  under  the  despotism  of  the  Bourbons,  was 
rent  by  factional  discords,  perfidious  princes,  and  the  par- 
tisans of  absolutism;  when  young  Italy  was  striving  for 
national  unity  and  a  nebulous  ideal,  a  federation  of  all 
nations,  in  which  all  were  to  live  in  the  same  relations  as  the 
individuals  in  a  family  or  the  families  in  a  city,  and  in  a 
sphere  of  morals,  in  which  each  nation  would  renounce  its 
own  selfish  desires  for  the  sake  of  that  general  good  which 
is  the  goal  of  all  humane  endeavor.  A  majority  of  the 
Italian  nobility  and  of  the  priests  were  heart  and  soul  in 
this  movement.  It  did  not  assail  class  interests  or  vested 
rights,  but  it  assailed  a  system  of  government  which  stifled 
all  patriotic  emotions,  subordinated  the  privileges  of  the 
nohility  and  priesthood,  and  it  opposed  the  political  am- 
bitions of  the  Papacy.  Metternich  's  policy  had  reduced  the 
Papacy  to  dependence  on  his  system,  to  a  police  agency  for 
the  taming  of  the  intellect  and  of  popular  passion.  It  is  a 
historical  fact  that  Pius  IX  was  a  member  of  the  revolution- 
firy  society  II  Carbonari,  which  before  Mazzini's  advent 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         229 

represented  young  Italy,  her  hopes  and  aspirations.  The 
Papacy  and  the  priesthood  suffered  as  much  under  Metter- 
nieh's  system  as  the  nobility  and  the  middle  class  of  Italy. 

Count  Peeci  grew  up  in  the  political  school  of  young  Italy. 
Born  a  nobleman,  the  son  of  a  general  of  Napoleon,  and 
reared  under  the  influences  of  the  Church,  his  ideas  of 
spiritual,  political,  and  national  liberty  were,  of  course,  en- 
compassed by  the  traditions  of  his  caste  and  restricted  by 
the  social  necessities  of  a  theocracy,  therefore,  could  not 
include  democratic  possibilities  and  economic  changes,  or 
assail  the  order  of  society,  though  they  might  be  in  constel- 
lation with  the  nebulous  ideals  of  a  revolutionary  movement 
with  the  watchword  "God  and  the  people,"  the  people 
meaning  the  upper  and  middle  classes  whose  traditions  and 
interests  were  in  the  direction  of  the  traditions  and  interests 
of  the  Roman  priesthood.  With  the  advent  of  Mazzini  as 
the  leader  of  young  Italy  and  of  the  revolutionary  movement 
in  Europe  there  came  also  a  change  in  the  political  pro- 
gram of  young  Italy.  Mazzini  was  the  prophet  of  a  social 
order  more  just,  free,  and  spiritual.  Though  he  did  not 
advocate  economic  or  social  changes,  or  assail  class  interests 
and  faith  in  the  supernatural,  yet,  the  execution  of  his  pro- 
gram, aiming  at  a  universal  brotherhood,  based  on  reason, 
equality,  and  humanity,  was  only  possible  on  the  ruins  of  a 
society,  in  which  greed,  mutual  suspicion,  class  interests, 
hereditary  privileges,  and  superstition  were  the  ruling  fac- 
tors. Of  course,  a  readjustment  of  the  revolutionary  ele- 
ments became  a  necessity.  While  the  radicals  attached 
themselves  to  the  new  leader,  adopted  his  program,  and 
insisted  uncompromisingly  on  a  unified  republic,  a  consider- 
able part  of  young  Italy,  while  aspiring  for  unity  and  free- 
dom, remained  favorable  to  a  monarchical  government  or  to 
a  federation. 

Brought  up  during  a  revolutionary  epoch  and  surrounded 
by  revolutionary  elements,  educated  to  the  priesthood  while 
the  Church  was  enslaved  by  monarchical  powers  of  the  old 
regime  and  made  the  tool  of  Metternich's  absolutism,  Count 
Pecci  became  absorbed  in  the  vague  ideals  of  young  Italy 
and  lost  sight  of  the  relations  which  racial  ethics  and  tra- 
ditions sustain  to  the  facts  and  phenomena  in  the  life  of 
nations.  As  a  priest  and  nobleman  he  was  engulfed  in  the 
intense  hatred  of  monarchical  power  which  Metternich's 
gluttonous   dynastic   system   called   forth   and,    therefore, 


230  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

failed  to  perceive  that  the  humiliating  position  of  the 
Catholic  Church  as  a  tool  of  monarchical  greed  and  pai>sion 
was  made  possible  only  because  the  Church  was  nothing 
but  another  such  system  of  oppression  under  which  not 
only  Europe  hut  the  largest  part  of  Christendom  had  for 
centuries  languished.  The  fundamental  principles  of 
Count  Pecci's  Papal  policy  were  evolved  from  the  nebulous 
clouds  of  revolutionary-  and  humane  sentiment  and  of  polit- 
ical transcendentalism  which  during  the  second  (juartcr  of 
the  last  century  were  rising  on  tlie  political  horizon  of  the 
Latin  race  and  especially  of  the  Italians. 

In  the  seclusion  of  his  episcopate  at  Perugia,  Count  Peeci 
conceived  and  formulated  the  policy  through  which  as  Leo 
XIII  he  attempted  to  combine  the  ideals  of  his  youth  with 
the  experiences  of  manhood,  the  aims  of  an  enlightened  age 
with  the  traditions  of  the  Papacy,  a  policy  in  conception  and 
direction  almost  identical  with  the  creation  of  Napoleon's 
versatile  genius.  Leo  XIII  has  enlarged  the  Napoleonic 
idea  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Latin  race  under  a  military 
dictatorship  into  the  spiritual  and  political  supremacy  of 
the  Latin  Church  under  the  infallible  Pontiff.  Leo  XIII 
intended  to  enter  into  the  political  inheritance  of  the  great 
Corsican,  with  whose  intellectual  and  political  development 
his  own  has  many  points  in  common.  Like  Napoleon  he 
ripened  intellectually^  ethically,  and  politically  in  a  revolu- 
tionary age  and  retained  the  impressions  of  youth,  of  all 
the  phases  of  the  revolutionary  movements.  With  his  rise 
in  the  social  scale  and  military  hierarchy  the  revolutionist  in 
Napoleon 's  dual  nature  succumbed  to  the  condottieri.  When 
he  mounted  the  throne  he  wove  the  ideals  of  his  youth  and 
the  ambitions  of  his  soul  into  a  whole,  in  which  the  latter 
were  the  groundwork  and  the  ideals  the  deceptive  decora- 
tions. As  Pope,  Count  Pecci  attempted  to  weave  a  new 
religious-social-economic  system  from  the  priestly  traditions 
of  ten  centuries  and  the  demonstrations  of  science  with  the 
Pontifex  Maxinms  as  the  central  figure. 

Leo  XIII,  like  Napoleon,  was  apparently  one  of  those 
historical  characters  that  made  their  own  abilities  the  sole 
measure  of  their  policy  and  therefore  failed  in  the  essentials. 
Like  Napoleon,  he  intended  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new 
social  order  on  the  supposition  that  men  can  be  governed 
by  imagination  and  the  passion  for  glory,  be  it  in  this  world 
or  in  the  hereafter.     "Society,"  Napoleon  said,  "cannot 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         231 

exist  without  inequality  of  fortune,  and  inequality  of  for- 
tune cannot  exist  without  religion.  A  man  does  not  get 
himself  killed  for  a  few  cents  a  day  or  for  a  paltry  distinc- 
tion; you  must  speak  to  the  soul  in  order  to  electrify  the 
man."  Napoleon  established  a  military  system  of  govern- 
ment for  the  protection  of  the  classes,  reserving  to  the  masses 
a  sham  sovereignty  and  equal  opportunities  to  labor,  and  to 
die  on  the  battlefield  for  the  benefit  of  the  classes,  for  the 
glory  of  C«sar  and  that  of  a  military  funeral.  Aut  Ccesar, 
aut  nullus,  either  Ciesar  or  nobody,  was  his  motto — Aut 
Pontifex,  aut  nullus,  either  the  pontiff  or  nobody,  was  that 
of  Leo  XIII.  He  intended  to  establish  a  theocratic  sys- 
tem of  government  on  the  broad  foundation  of  a  pseudo- 
democracy  for  the  protection  of  the  classes,  also  reserving 
to  the  masses  a  sham  sovereignty  and  equal  opportunities 
to  labor  and  to  be  crushed  under  the  iron  heel  of  industrial- 
ism for  the  benefit  of  the  classes,  for  the  glory  of  the 
Pontifex  Maximus  and  of  a  life  in  the  hereafter. 

As  a  temporal  ruler  Count  Pecci  might  have  become  the 
saviour  of  the  Latin  race,  the  master  spirit  in  the  process 
of  its  regeneration,  the  leader  in  its  advance  toward  the 
humane.  He  might  have  placed  the  passions  and  the  high 
intellectual  qualities  of  the  race  and  the  higher  ideals  of 
his  soul  and  the  superb  products  of  his  mind  in  a  crucible 
and  amalgamated  them  into  a  social  system  adapted  to  the 
Latin  race  and  consistent  with  the  demands  of  humanity. 

Unfortunately  Count  Pecci,  the  statesman  and  humani- 
tarian, was  a  priest  and  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  The  ambitious  designs  which  had  ripened  in  his 
mind,  the  humane  sentiments  of  his  heart,  the  ideal  concep- 
tions of  his  soul  were  contorted  by  the  weight  of  the  Tiara. 
Therefore,  the  creations  of  his  mind  can  hardly  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  present  condition  of  the  Latin  race  and 
applicable  thereto ;  they  can  never  be  in  harmony  with  the 
moral  nature  and  the  traditions  of  the  Teuton  race,  or 
applicable  to  its  economic  and  social  institutions  because 
these  are  evolved  from  nature  while  Leo's  creations  must 
rest  upon  superstition  and  an  artificial  structure,  a  mon- 
strosity;— theocracy.  When  Leo  XIII  undertook  to  carry 
out  the  Napoleonic  schemes  for  the  coercion  of  the  Teuton 
race,  had  Count  Pecci  considered  the  fate  of  the  Corsican  ? 

When  Cardinal  Count  Pecci  mounted  the  Papal  throne  he 
found  the  civilized  world  in  a  state  of  social  unrest,  all 


232  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

authority  and  the  principles  of  government  by  divine  grace 
assaiknl,  the  soeial  ordt-r  and  the  Papacy  tln-eatened,  the 
cause  of  democracy  rapidly  progressing,  and  a  spirit  of 
negation  generally  i)revailing  as  to  matters  spiritual  and 
temporal.  Unmindful  of  the  fact  that  tlie  Catholic  Church 
had  achieved  its  greatest  triumphs  while  it  was  a  republic 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  democracy,  the  Papacy 
had  ui)lield  the  monarchical  system  and  class  rule  and  had 
condemned  the  principles  of  democracy.  Consequently  with 
the  progress  of  democracy  the  power  of  the  Papacy  was 
correspondingly  reduced. 

The  ascendancy  of  the  Protestant  House  of  Hohenzollern, 
the  decline  in  political  power  of  the  Latin  race,  the  appar- 
ently firm  establishment  of  the  French  Republic,  the  vitality 
and  force  of  socialism  and  its  rapid  spread  amongst  the 
masses  in  the  Latin  countries,  and  the  impossibility  of  dam- 
ming the  current  of  infidelity  flowing  from  the  inexhaustible 
source  of  scientific  research,  convinced  Leo  XIII  that  the 
Papacy  and  the  theocratic  structure  of  his  Church  and  with 
these  the  social  order  were  in  jeopardy  unless  it  were  pos- 
sible to  direct  the  mighty  volume  of  intellectual  forces  and 
revolutionary  passion,  engendered  by  the  union  of  Protest- 
antism and  science,  into  artificial  channels,  the  flow  of  which 
the  Church  could  control.  Leo  XIII  also  recognized  the 
fact  that  the  political  supremacy  of  the  Latin  race  was  a 
thing  of  the  past  and  that  it  was  but  a  question  of  time  when 
the  Slavs  or  the  Germans  should  secure  the  undisputed 
hegemony  in  Europe.  In  either  case  the  Papacy  would  be 
assailed  and  driven  out  of  Europe. 

In  our  days  of  overflowing  democracy,  it  was  therefore 
quite  natural  that  Leo  XIII  should  have  considered  the  pos- 
sibility, and  made  it  the  basis  of  all  his  political  calculations, 
to  prolong  the  life  of  the  Papacy,  to  extend  its  influence  and 
to  augment  its  power  by  a  policy  aiming  at  the  control  of 
the  democratic  current  for  the  protection  of  the  class  inter- 
ests created  by  Industrial  Feudalism,  and  consequently 
enforcing  the  allegiance  of  such  interests  to  the  Papacy  in 
all  countries,  in  every  sect,  and  under  all  circumstances. 

The  modern  Papacy  is  an  institution  independent  of  all 
the  agencies,  the  totality  of  which  is  called  modern  civiliza- 
tion. The  modern  Papacy  may  be  compared  w'ith  the  pirat- 
ical State  of  the  freebooters  of  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth 
centuries,   or  with   the    Condottieri   of   the   Middle    Ages 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         233 

who  sold  their  prowess  to  the  highest  bidder,  the  latter,  of 
course,  always  being  of  the  classes,  because  the  poor  and 
downtrodden  had  not  the  gold  to  pay  for  the  services  of 
mercenaries.  It  has  been  a  part  of  the  ambitious  design  of 
Leo  XIII  to  offer  the  services  of  the  Papacy,  of  its  clerical 
condottieri,  and  of  their  cohorts  of  ignorant  and  fanatical 
followers  to  International  Capitalism  for  the  political  repres- 
sion of  the  masses  and  the  obstruction  of  the  humanizing 
process  of  Protestantism  and  of  the  age.  When  Count 
Pecci  entered  into  the  succession  of  St.  Peter  and  the  Vati- 
can as  the  head  of  the  Roman  theocracy  he  left  behind  his 
individuality,  the  sympathies  of  his  heart,  and  the  ideals  of 
his  soul.  As  Pope  he  personified  the  spirit  of  superstition, 
of  intolerance,  of  persecution  that  has  been  the  curse  of 
mankind,  has  divided  Christendom,  and,  like  Judas,  be- 
trayed the  Lord.  When  Count  Pecci  had  reached  the  object 
of  his  priestly  ambition,  the  Papal  throne,  he  may  have  cher- 
ished the  thought,  as  his  predecessors  did,  to  repel  Jesuitism 
and  to  idealize  the  theocratic  structure  of  his  Church. 
Like  his  predecessors  he  experienced  on  the  Papal  throne  the 
force  of  traditions  and  environments  and  of  the  law  of 
nature  that  all  parts  of  a  living  organism  must  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  functions  of  the  whole.  He  found  the  spirit 
that  had  quickened  and  for  centuries  sustained  the  theo- 
cratic organism  of  the  Church  stronger  than  the  individual 
will  of  the  wisest  and  most  humane  of  men,  and  that  now  as 
in  the  past  the  Vicar  of  Christ  has  to  choose  between  sub- 
mission or  the  fate  of  Clement  XIV. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Evolution  op  Pope  Leo's  Policy 

Leo  XIII  has  been  the  first  Pope  to  profit  from  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Papacy.  Wliile  the  Papal  throne  was  sustained 
by  Frenc'li  bayonets  and  during  the  revolutionary  period 
following  the  evacuation  of  Rome,  the  Papacy  was  not  in  a 
position  to  profit  from  the  change  in  its  hierarchical  and 
political  status  and  correspondingly  to  change  its  policy. 
Moreover  Pius  IX  had  not  the  greatness  of  intellect  and 
decision  of  character  to  formulate  a  new  policy  or  to  carry 
it  to  success. 

P>om  the  Reformation  to  the  death  of  Piux  IX,  the  Papal 
l)olicy  had  supported  absolute  monarchy  and  privileged 
aristocracy  and  had  taught  the  masses  obedience  and  sub- 
mission. When  the  French  revolution  and  the  rising  spirit 
of  nationality  substituted  representative  for  autocratic 
government,  the  Church's  political  creed  remained  unaltered 
and  was  only  so  far  modified  as  to  recognize  the  moneyed 
power  and  the  third  estate  as  tolerable  additions  to  the  circle 
of  the  privileged  and  to  support  reservatio  menialis  the 
forms  of  representative  government  where  its  tendency  was 
not  democratic  or  revolutionary  and  left  the  social  status 
of  the  masses  virtually  unchanged.  The  Church  held  the 
principle  of  nationality  to  be  an  effervescence  of  political 
idealism  and  the  principle  of  democracy  of  Satanic  origin. 
The  first  could  not  be  tolerated  b}'  the  Church  because  it 
assailed  the  temporal  power  of  the  Papacy  and  the  second 
was  thought  to  be  irreconcilable  with  its  very  existence. 
The  Church  regarded  all  Liberals  and  Democrats  as  natural 
enemies  to  the  order  in  which  it  flourished  and  had  no  more 
mercy  for  them  than  the  Spanish  inquisitors  had  for 
heretics. 

Jesuitical  policy  in  modern  times  started  from  the  conclu- 
sion or  rather  delusion  that  the  Roman  theocracy  could  be 
permanently  anchored  in  the  swift-flowing,  bottomless 
stream  of  time.  So  long  as  the  Catholic  masses  were  held 
in  ignorance,  superstition,  and  poverty,  so  long  as  the  old 

234 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         235 

regime  in  its  essentials  and  the  political  equilibrium  as  then 
existing  could  be  maintained  in  Europe,  resisting  all 
changes  in  the  social  system,  this  policy  was  wise  and  might 
have  been  successful  for  an  indefinite  period  but  for  the 
defeat  of  France  in  1870  and  the  subsequent  transfer  of  the 
hegemony  in  Europe  from  the  Latin  to  the  Teutonic  race, 
which  changed  at  once  the  economic  and  social  status  of  the 
Papacy  and  neutralized  the  political  effects  of  the  dogma  of 
the  infallibility.  The  unification  of  Germany,  and  the  mil- 
itary and  political  dependence  of  Catholic  Austria  on  her 
Protestant  neighbor  foreshadowed  the  doom  of  the  Papacy 
in  Europe.  The  unification  of  Italy,  the  downfall  of  the 
old  regime,  and  the  destruction  of  the  temporal  power  of 
the  Papacy  left  it  at  the  mercy  of  the  Protestant  Central 
Power  of  Europe  or  of  the  Slavic  Pope  in  St.  Petersburg. 
The  French  Republic  had  been  set  up  and  shaped  by  men 
who  object  to  the  altar  as  much  as  they  object  to  the  throne. 

While  thus  the  supports  of  the  Papacy  in  Europe  gave 
way  one  by  one,  new  ideas,  quickened  in  the  womb  of  science, 
were  brought  forth  and  rapidly  developed.  These  in  their 
totality  were  named  socialism  for  want  of  an  exact  and 
essential  definition,  a  definition  too  that  shall  not  be  forth- 
coming until  these  ideas  shall  have  matured  and  adapted 
themselves  to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  nations 
and  to  their  racial  conditions  and  ethical  traditions.  Yet, 
their  fancy  imbued  the  masses  in  Europe  with  a  truer  con- 
ception of  democracy  and  inspired  them  with  a  revolution- 
ary fervor  of  such  aggressiveness  and  uncompromising 
hostility  to  throne,  altar,  and  IMammon  that  Church  and 
State,  and  the  order  upon  which  they  rest,  are  equally  in 
danger. 

When  the  first  signs  of  an  almost  irrepressible  and  cer- 
tainly titanic  conflict  between  the  masses  and  the  classes  had 
become  clearly  discernible,  Leo  XIII  mounted  the  Papal 
throne  and  broke  with  all  the  political  traditions  of  the 
Papacy  and  reversed  its  policy. 

To  Leo  XIII  it  appeared  indisputable  that  so  far  as  the 
Latin  nations  are  concerned  the  doctrine  of  government  by 
Divine  right.  Legitimacy,  could  not  lastingly  be  sustained 
by  bayonets  or  the  reactionary  influences  of  the  Church. 
France  was  already  republican ;  Spain,  Italy,  and  Portugal 
might  follow  her  example  at  any  moment.  Russia,  under 
all  forms  of  government,  must  assail  the  Papacy,  while 


23G  CASSOCK  AST)  SWORD 

(lerinany,  wliatcver  inij^ht  be  lier  social  and  political  con- 
tlitions,  will  remain  Protestant  in  spirit  and  in  political 
character.  A  nation,  so  tlioron^ldy  imbued  with  militarism 
and  the  ethics  of  the  Jiet'ormation  that  all  classes  are  filled 
with  the  sense  of  duty  to  the  commonw(;alth  manifested  in 
an  esprit  dc  corps  of  remarkable  exaction,  cannot  be  last- 
ingly alfected  by  the  corrui)ting  influences  of  Parliamentar- 
ism, of  industrialism  and  materialism,  and  of  demagogy, 
even  in  a  possible  democratic  organization  of  society, 
because  the  masses  are  disciplined  to  obey  the  dictates  of 
reason  and  to  subordinate  themselves  to  their  superiors  in 
intellect  and  learning. 

In  the  pa.st  the  Hohenzollern  adapted  themselves  to  all 
political  conditions.  It  is,  therefore,  possible  that  so  long 
as  their  policy  shall  be  made  to  correspond  with  the  social 
phenomena  of  the  Reformation  and  the  traditions  of  the 
Teuton  race  they  may  maintain  their  hold  on  the  affections 
of  the  German  people.  Moreover,  the  hold  of  the  word  "re- 
public" over  the  imaginations  of  mankind  has  not  increased 
of  late  years,  particularly  not  with  the  Germans,  having 
republican  France  as  its  neighbor,  with  no  evidence  that 
democracy  and  monarchy  are  inherently  incompatible. 
Therefore,  it  appeared  to  Leo  XIII  just  as  probable  that 
after  the  next  great  European  war  the  Hohenzollern  might 
be  at  the  head  of  a  Protestant  democracy  as  that  Germany 
should  be  transformed  into  a  bourgeois  republic  or  an 
anarchical  body  made  up  of  tumultuous  communes. 

The  pro-Roman  Irish  national  movement,  the  pro-Roman 
tendency  within  the  Established  Church  of  England,  the 
mediocracy  of  her  statesmen,  the  political  corruption  of  the 
Parliament,  the  moral  and  physical  degeneration  of  her 
aristocracy,  the  growth  of  democratic  sentiment  in  the  lower 
strata  of  society,  and  all  those  economic  and  social  causes 
through  which  after  a  long  period  of  prosperity  all  exclu- 
sively commercial  and  industrial  empires  decline,  appar- 
ently indicated  that  Papal  advances  might  find  a  favorable 
response  in  England. 

These  political  deductions,  the  impressions  of  youth  and 
manhood,  the  pressing  necessities  of  the  Papacy,  and  his- 
torically supported  considerations  on  the  moral  condition 
and  fate  of  democracies,  moved  Leo  XIII  to  change  the 
Papal  policy  of  a  thousand  years. 

The  ancient  democracies  succumbed  to  rot  and  were  sue- 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         237 

ceeded  by  a  despotism  of  one  kind  or  another.  The  founda- 
tion of  every  democracy  is  the  condition  of  equality  of  all 
citizens  in  opportunities  to  attain  the  economic  and  intel- 
lectual qualifications  absolutely  necessary  for  a  proper 
exercise  of  citizenship.  In  ancient  times  slavery  and  con- 
quest destroyed  the  foundation.  In  modern  democracies 
the  forces  of  industrialism  are  a  dissolvent  because  the 
change  in  the  political  system  took  place  without  a  corre- 
sponding change  or  advancement  in  the  intellectual,  social 
and  economic  conditions  of  the  masses  to  insure  equality. 
The  new  political  order  was  grafted  on  the  economic  and 
social  order  of  hereditary  monarchy  and  class  rule.  Thus, 
for  example,  in  republican  France  the  social  order  of  the 
old  regime  was  retained  and  consequently  she  is  only  nom- 
inally a  democracy,  the  masses  remaining  economically 
dependent  and  therefore  politically  dependent.  It  is  only 
a  change  in  the  form  of  government,  lacking,  however,  all  the 
essentials  of  a  true  democracy.  In  the  United  States  the 
people  enjoyed  equal  opportunities  until  the  change  from 
pastoral  life  to  industrialism  was  made,  when  all  the  con- 
ditions securing  to  the  generality  of  the  people  equality  in 
opportunities  and  the  essentials  of  citizenship  were  also 
changed  and  class  rule  gradually  superseded  the  govern- 
ment by  the  people  for  the  people. 

Virtue  and  wisdom  are  the  qualifications  for  government. 
Under  a  government  of  Divine  origin  and  hereditary  in  its 
character  it  matters  little,  so  far  as  the  stability  and  the 
issues  of  government  are  concerned,  whether  these  qualifica- 
tions are  actual  or  presumptive.  In  the  latter  case  errors 
may  be  corrected  by  succeeding  administrations  because  the 
source  of  power  as  of  Divine  origin,  or  held  by  the  people 
to  be  such,  cannot  be  corrupted.  The  structure  of  the  State 
being  by  strata  of  slow  formation  and  therefore  of  great 
adhesion,  the  stability  thereby  secured  diminishes  the  evil 
effects  of  misgovernment.  Moreover,  under  a  monarchical 
form  of  government  the  intellectual  part  of  the  people  is 
virtually  the  governing  body  and,  therefore,  the  acts  of  gov- 
ernment are  less  likely  to  be  wanting  in  wisdom,  whatever 
their  virtue  may  or  may  not  be.  It  matters  not  whether  the 
form  of  government  is  constitutional  or  personal,  whether 
the  franchise  is  universal  or  restricted,  because  the  struc- 
ture of  society  does  not  permit  a  licentious  use  of  power  by 
officials  or  by  the  representative  body  of  the  classes.     Not- 


238  CASSUCK  AND  SWORD 

Avitlistanding  the  moral  and  i)olitical  shortcomings  of  the 
second  Najjoleonic  empire  the  Corps  Ugislatif,  though  a  sub- 
servient body  of  petty  politicians  and  adventurers  moving 
in  the  foul  atmosphere  of  a  thoroughly  corrupted  court  and 
society,  never  degenerated  as  to  wisdom,  political  morals,  and 
deportment  in  the  manner  witnessed  in  republican  France, 
in  whose  government  the  immoral  passions  of  the  classes, 
Manting  in  the  humane,  and  the  intellectual  defects  of  the 
masses,  failing  in  a  true  conception  of  social  possibilities, 
find  exclusive  expression.  While  it  is  possible  to  establish 
by  decree  a  republican  form  of  government,  it  is  not  possible 
thus  to  create  a  democracy.  This  must  be  of  slow  and  nat> 
ural  growth  since  thus  alone  is  guaranteed  the  intellectual 
and  moral  elevation  of  the  masses  to  a  plane  on  which  the 
sense  of  duty  is  fully  developed  and  the  humane  becomes 
the  only  guide  in  the  affairs  of  State. 

Surrounded  by  favorable  conditions  the  people  of  the 
Northern  part  of  our  Republic  had  passed  through  nearly 
all  the  stages  of  economic  and  social  evolution  necessary  to 
reach  the  condition  of  equality  in  opportunities  and  of  intel- 
lectual development,  promising  a  gradual  and  steady 
progress  in  general  culture,  in  ethics,  and  in  political  prefer- 
ment to  an  almost  ideal  democracy.  Unfortunately  the 
civil  war  and  the  sudden  change  in  the  economic  conditions 
of  the  people  not  only  neutralized  the  achievement*  of  a 
century  (dated  from  the  capture  of  Louisburg)  but  also 
destroyed  the  landmarks  by  which  the  people  were  to  be 
guided  in  the  orderly  pursuit  of  happiness.  Looking  back- 
ward, reviewing  the  present,  and  peering  into  the  future  the 
conviction  is  almost  irrepressible  that  in  1861  it  might  have 
been  better  for  the  American  democracy  of  the  North  to 
have  accepted  the  advice  of  Horace  Greeley  to  let  the  South 
depart  in  peace.  AMien  future  generations  shall  have 
placed  this  philosopher  and  statesman  on  the  plane  of 
patriotism  and  humane  endeavor  on  which  his  fame  will  rest 
in  history,  they  will  also  recognize  that  his  fears  were 
l)rophetic  of  the  events  and  conditions  which  have  reduced 
the  great  American  democracy  from  a  vast,  compact,  and 
victoriously  forward  moving  host  to  a  struggling,  aimless 
mass  of  individuals,  striving  for  the  retention  of  the  out- 
ward signs  of  liberty  and  wasting  their  energies  in  the  fight 
for  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 

In  a  republic,  in  which  equality  in  opportunities  has  not 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         239 

been  secured,  and  under  a  democratic  form  of  government, 
when  such  equality  has  been  lost,  the  masses  are  without  a 
proper  conception  of  their  condition,  needs,  and  possibil- 
ities, and  are,  therefore,  lacking  in  cohesion  and  fixed  pur- 
poses, and  become  dependent  on  the  political  virtues  and 
wisdom  of  the  classes.  Obeying  a  law  of  nature,  the 
masses  at  first  accepted  in  the  exercise  of  citizenship  the 
guidance  of  their  superiors  in  possessions  and  social  station. 
With  the  growth  of  industrialism  and  the  subsequent  rapid 
growth  in  wealth  of  the  classes  and  of  the  few,  a  gradual 
severance  of  the  social  relations  until  then  existing  between 
all  classes  of  the  people  took  place  and  mutual  distrust  was 
engendered,  approaching  by  degrees  a  total  disruption  of 
all  political  relations  and  creating  an  ever  enlarging  gulf 
in  political  ethics  and  requirements  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor.  When  industrialism  developed  into  industrial 
feudalism  and  Capitalism,  the  masses  gradually  discovered 
that  under  the  changed  economic  conditions  the  newly  cre- 
ated classes  w^ere  practicing  under  new  forms  the  same 
spoliation  even  Avith  less  regard  to  the  general  welfare  and 
to  the  most  ordinary  precepts  of  humanity,  as  the  privi- 
leged classes  did  in  Europe  under  the  old  regime.  With 
the  cognition  of  this  truth  the  masses  suffered  themselves 
to  be  captured  by  demagogues  who  delivered  them  into  the 
hands  of  the  philistines  and  of  the  highest  bidders  amongst 
the  despoilers  of  the  people.  Then  the  present  period  of 
economic  and  social  corruption  set  in  which  in  intensity 
and  spread  can  only  be  compared  to  that  in  the  history  of 
ancient  Rome  when  "bread  and  games,"  Panem  et  Cir- 
censes,  was  the  pathetic  cry  of  the  Roman  populace. 

In  France  this  degraded  condition  of  the  masses  and 
classes  found  expression  in  official  corruption,  in  the  re- 
election of  the  rogues  responsible  for  the  Panama  scandal, 
in  the  tumultuous  and  disgraceful  deportment  of  Parlia- 
ment, in  exceptional  laws,  in  the  anarchical  condition  of 
society,  in  the  blind  hatred  of  foreigners  and  in  the 
chauvinistic  spirit  of  revenge,  in  the  pilgrimages  to 
Lourdes,  and  in  the  introduction  of  brutal  sports.  In  the 
United  States  it  finds  expression  in  the  corruption  of  po- 
litical parties,  in  the  chase  after  the  almighty  dollar,  in 
the  apathy  of  all  classes  undisturbed  by  the  disclosure; 
of  the  deepest  cesspools  of  official  depravity,  and  in 
the  insane  support  of  all  kinds  of  sport  which  has  devel- 


240  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

oped  into  a  national  malady.  There  must  be  something 
radically  wronp  in  the  intellectual  and  ethical  cx)ndition 
of  a  people,  who  stamp  the  brutal  football  games  of 
"  'varsity  crews"  as  events  of  national  iini)ort  and  honor 
professional  baseball  players  with  triuinpliant  receptions 
such  as  are  due  only  to  benefactors  of  mankind  or 
heroes  and  saviours  of  nations.  It  is  only  too  apparent 
that  a  period  of  disintegration  of  civilized  society,  except 
where  checked  by  special  agencies,  has  set  in,  the  logical 
effect  of  grafting  industrialism  and  the  results  of  science 
on  a  social  order  of  passed  ages  in  which  feudalism  and 
preternaturalisra  prescribed  the  conditions  of  society. 
This  very  process  of  grafting  has  caused  the  masses  to  he 
lapped  like  sheep  in  the  fold  of  the  classes,  and  these  too 
become  morally  irresponsible  in  all  countries  under  a  nom- 
inally republican  or  democratic  government. 

As  an  historical  character  that  absorbed,  reflected  and 
utilized  all  the  currents  of  life  of  his  time,  Leo  XIII  had 
been  deeply  impressed  with  the  fact  that  modern  society  has 
only  confused  notions  of  the  principle  of  good  and  evil  and 
has  reached  through  the  discussion  of  subtleties,  a  point, 
where  it  can  no  longer  establish  a  distinction  between  truth 
and  sophism,  and  while  Christianity  and  Teuton  civilization 
have  long  ago  eradicated  from  among  the  most  advanced 
peoples  the  outward  forms  of  primeval  idolatry,  yet  the 
spirit  from  which  it  proceeded  remains  an  essential  element 
of  human  nature,  and  finds  many  ways  of  expressing  itself. 

Leo  XIII  perceived  that  the  modern  social  and  religious 
tendencies  are  not  in  the  direction  of  a  perfection  of  the 
masses  with  respect  to  moral  and  political  qualities  and, 
therefore,  will  not  result  in  the  elevation  of  the  ignorant, 
credulous,  and  suffering  crowd  ever  anxious  for  life  under 
any  and  all  conditions  and  yet  like  a  docile  flock  driven  by 
its  master,  silently  and  patiently  waiting  with  the  innocent 
faith  of  the  child  for  the  deliverer  and  for  a  humane  exist- 
ence. He  could  not  fail  to  perceive  the  striking  fact  that 
at  this  time  of  religious  skepticism  and  the  growth  of  a 
demand  for  scientific  demonstrations  destructive  of  faith 
in  the  supernatural  there  is  also  and  simultaneously  a  wide- 
spread revival  of  religious  faith  and  in  the  Catholic  Church 
a  reassertion  of  superstitious  credulity  found  only  in  the 
lowest  stage  of  intellectual  development.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  Germany  this  revival  has  spread  over  the  civilized 


LEO  XIII  AND  MODERN  EVOLUTION  OF  PAPACY         241 

world.  It  is  a  feverish,  emotional  excitement  which  has 
seized  not  only  the  ignorant  in  Catholic,  but  also  many  in 
Protestant,  countries,  where  it  manifests  itself  in  ritualism, 
in  the  organization  of  monastic  orders,  and  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  actual  divine  presence  in  the  ordinances  of  religion. 

This  excitement  is  undoubtedly  a  symptom  of  a  disease 
in  an  exhausted  society,  caused  by  its  coercion  into  an  order 
which  has  outlived  its  usefulness  and  is  no  longer  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  modern  culture  and  refuses  to  apply 
to  its  organization  the  intellectual  acceptances  of  the  dem- 
onstrations of  science.  It  is  a  symptom  of  a  general  de- 
rangement of  heads  and  hearts,  "eines  allgemeinen  mora- 
lischen  and  physischen  Katzenjammers"  (of  a  moral  and 
social  all-wretchedness)  which  drives  the  weak  of  mind  into 
anarchism  or  to  childlike  faith.  It  is  a  sign  of  an  approach- 
ing upheaval  of  society,  like  the  religious  excitement  in  the 
fourteenth  century  which  was  also  a  disease  of  the  imagina- 
tion produced  by  unhealthy  social  conditions.  Then  the 
fanatical  sect  of  the  flagellants  and  the  pilgrimages  en 
masse  were  the  first  convulsions  of  a  dying  social  organism. 
To  Leo  XIII  it  may  have  appeared  more  than  probable  that 
under  a  continuance  of  the  present  social  conditions  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  to  Lourdes  are  rather 
the  precursors  of  armies  of  sansculotts  than  a  sign  of  a 
return  of  the  masses  to  the  absolute  faith  of  the  dead  centu- 
ries. It  is  true  that  the  advance  made  by  violent  opinions 
is  certainly  less  great  than  it  often  appears,  but  the  growth 
of  their  power  is  none  the  less  threatening  because  it  per- 
suades, intimidates,  or  at  least  neutralizes  all  undecided 
minds. 

It  is  an  historical  fact,  demonstrated  by  every  revolution, 
that  with  the  growth  of  social  abuses  the  moral  courage  of 
the  beneficiaries  thereof  decreases  and  thus  the  class  inter- 
ested in  the  maintenance  of  society  becomes  by  degrees  less 
able  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  new  ideas  and  the 
assaults  by  the  abused.  The  power  of  resistance  possessed 
by  the  classes  is  not  weakened  by  their  advancement  in  the 
humane  but  by  the  consciousness  of  collective  guilt.  They 
are  subject  to  that  feeling  which  seizes  the  fugitive  from 
justice  and  delivers  him  to  justice.  It  is  the  consciousness 
of  guilt  which  leads  to  ill-considered  measures  and  ill-timed 
persecutions,  alienating  friends  and  making  enemies.  It 
is  that  feeling  of  which  the  great  German  poet  Schiller  says 


242  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

in  the  closing  lines  of  one  of  his  tragedies,  "Life  is  not  the 
highest  gift  of  nature,  Guilt  though  is  the  greatest  of  all 
evils." 

It  has  been  the  divine  mission  of  Christ  to  instill  into 
society  this  consciousness  of  collective  guilt;  before  it  did 
not  exist.  It  alone  made  the  advancement  in  the  humane 
possible;  without  it  the  strong  would  have  always  sup- 
pressed the  weak.  The  more  the  human  race  advanced  in 
culture,  the  more  the  individual  became  dependent  on  his 
neighbor,  on  society,  on  collective  action,  the  more  also  was 
the  consciousness  of  collective  guilt  able  to  exert  itself.  It 
is  of  direct  and  reflex  action  and  thus  explains  the  sudden 
collapse  of  society  when  apparently  yet  firmly  knit.  The 
sense  of  collective  righteousness  was  evolved  from  the 
Reformation  as  its  greatest  achievement;  it  finds  con- 
stant nourishment  in  the  acceptances  of  the  demonstra- 
tions of  science,  and  will  become  the  political  sense  of  society 
whenever  the  new  social  ideas,  born  of  science,  sliall,  under 
the  light  of  Christ's  sermon  on  the  INIount,  have  ripened  in 
the  human  mind. 

For  the  salvation  of  the  Papacy  and  society  Leo  XIII  con- 
ceived the  idea  to  relieve  the  classes  of  the  consciousness  of 
guilt.  To  this  purpose,  he  probably  thought  it  necessary 
to  treat  the  masses  well,  to  give  them,  as  sheep,  good  pas- 
turage and  shelter,  that  they  should  not  be  neglected  or 
abused,  or  w^antonly  killed  under  the  iron  heel  of  industrial- 
ism. In  Leo's  mind  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  material 
condition  of  the  masses  should  be  made  like  unto  those  of 
the  South  American  Indians  in  Paraguay  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Jesuit  fathers,  a  multitude  of  obedient  sub- 
jects, an  ignorant,  superstitious,  and  stolid  mass  without 
sufficient  intelligence  to  comprehend  their  true  position  and 
to  claim  their  inheritance,  and  of  such  a  dwarfed  moral 
nature,  that  the  Church  could  always  control  their  spiritual 
and  worldly  desires,  their  votes  and  their  physical  force. 
To  counteract  the  effects  of  collective  righteousness,  in  order 
that  the  sheep  may  fatten  undisturbed  in  the  pasture  of 
faith,  Leo  XIII  contemplated  an  amalgam  of  the  truths  of 
the  Bible,  of  the  results  of  scientific  research,  and  of  im- 
mutable tradition,  and  to  apply  it  to  the  contingencies  and 
the  needs  of  modern  times,  and  to  force  the  ardent  desires 
of  a  new  generation  into  the  strait-jacket  of  theocracy  under 
the  universal  dominion  of  the  infallible  Pope. 


PART  IX 

CHRISTIAN  UNION,  PAPAL  AMBITION,  AND 
THE  PROTESTANT  MASSES 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Aims  of  Leo  XIII.  The  controlling  purposes  of  the 
Pontificate  of  Leo  XIII  were: 

1.  The  aim  to  effect  a  permanent  union  between  the  Cath- 
olic Church  and  the  republican  institutions  in  France,  thus 
to  restore  the  political  supremacy  of  the  Latin  race  in 
Europe  and  the  temporary  power  of  the  Papacy. 

2.  The  aim  to  reunite  all  the  sects  of  Christendom  in  one 
universal  Church  and  thus  array  the  strongest  religious 
forces  of  the  world  for  the  repression  of  democracy  on 
behalf  of  class  rule  and  of  those  rights  of  property,  on  which 
the  whole  structure  of  modern  society  rests,  and  thereby  to 
enlist  the  moneyed  and  privileged  powers  of  the  world  in 
the  support  of  the  Papacy  and  to  prevent  its  expulsion 
from  Rome  and  Europe. 

3.  The  aim  to  trans fwm  the  great  American  Republic 
into  a  dependency  of  the  Papacy  that  eventually  it  may 
transfer  its  seat  to  Washington  or  one  of  the  dependencies 
of  the  United  States. 

Reviewing  the  political  relations  of  the  Papacy  in  Europe, 
it  was  pointed  out  why  the  alliance  entered  into  between 
Leo  XIII,  Asiatic  Russia,  and  republican  France  failed  of 
its  purposes.  This  failure  also  brought  about  the  failure 
of  the  political  bargain  into  which  Leo  XIII  had  entered 
with  the  French  Opportunists  and  Moderates  in  relation  to 
the  internal  affairs  of  France.  When  Bismarck's  foreign 
policy  was  reestablished  in  Berlin  and  the  war  for  revenge 
had  been  indefinitely  postponed,  these  French  politicians, 
who  are  the  principal  professional  traders  in  France  and 
as  slippery  as  the  Jesuits,  had  no  more  use  for  his  Holiness 
or  his  policy.  When  Leo  XIII  entered  into  this  bargain, 
he  remembered  that  Pius  IX  had  been  brought  back  from 
his  exile  at  Gaeta  by  the  French  republic  in  1848.     It  was, 

243 


244  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

therefore,  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  third  French 
republic  miglit  render  a  similar  service  and  restore  to 
Leo  XIII  the  Patrimonium  Petri,  provided  he  would  sup- 
port the  rascally  politicians  who  fattened  on  the  opportuni- 
ties which  the  anarchical  condition  of  French  society  offered 
for  pelf.  The  Pope  further  expected  concessions  in  the 
school  question,  and  a  modification  of  the  educational  laws 
through  which  a  systematic  war  against  all  religion  is  car- 
ried on. 

Leo  XIII  failed,  because  he  erred  in  his  judgment  of  the 
French.  While  the  Catholic  faith  is  held  by  a  much  greater 
proportion  of  the  people  in  France  than  in  any  country  of 
the  first  rank  of  political  importance,  yet,  the  French  are 
not  LTltramontane  but  Galilean.  The  French  Catholics 
have  always  been  Frenchmen  first  and  then  Catholics,  and 
since  the  war  of  1870  they  are  so  intensely  French  that,  if 
the  Pope  were  a  German,  his  spiritual  authority  over  France 
would  be  in  great  peril.  This  sentiment  of  the  French  and 
the  Huguenot  element,  all  powerful  in  the  administration, 
prevented  the  realization  of  Leo's  true  purpose  of  building 
up  in  France  a  strong  Catholic  party  on  the  lines  of 
the  Great  Catholic  party,  the  "Centrum,"  in  Germany  and 
thus  to  use  France  for  the  Papal  schemes  in  Europe.  The 
French  love  no  other  people  except  the  French,  and  while 
they  were  willing  to  accept  Rome 's  assistance  in  the  war  for 
revenge  they  were  not  wdlling  to  accept  her  service  in  a  mat- 
ter so  entirely  political  as  the  choice  of  a  form  of  govern- 
ment or  the  election  of  French  Deputies. 

His  Holiness,  though  infallible,  made  a  mistake  when  he 
entered  into  such  a  bargain,  which  turned  out  a  jug-handled 
bargain,  all  on  one  side.  Politically,  the  interference  of 
Leo  XIII  in  French  affairs  in  1893  turned  out  as  disas- 
trously as  that  of  the  Pope  in  1572,  on  the  night  of  the  St. 
Bartholomew  festival.  Financially  it  had  even  more  dis- 
astrous results.  The  French  royalists  have  always  been  the 
main  financial  support  of  the  Papacy  since  it  refused  the 
financial  allocation  offered  by  Italy.  When  Leo  XIII 
exhorted  the  faithful  French  to  support  republican  institu- 
tions, the  Royalists  stopped  their  Peter's  Pence  offerings. 
At  the  same  time  the  Papal  treasury  had  been  robbed  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars  by  dishonest  Vatican  officials.  Therefore 
the  Pope  had  to  seek  new  financial  sources.  This  is  now 
one  of  the  duties  of  our  Deputy-Popes.     It  was  a  fine  aim 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PEOTESTANT  MASSES         245 

which  Leo  XIII  set  himself  in  France.  But  to  overcome 
the  accumulated  tendencies  and  allay  the  antagonism  of  a 
century,  was  a  herculean  task,  and  the  failure  of  it  turned 
the  thoughts  of  His  Holiness  and  of  his  successor  more 
strongly  towards  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The  more  so, 
because,  like  Sixtus  V,  the  Popes  now  must  accumulate  vast 
treasures  to  carry  out  their  ambitious  designs. 


CHAPTER  II 

Leo's  Spiritual  Will  and  Testament.  In  an  encyclical, 
addressed  not  to  the  Bisliops  and  clergy,  or  even  to  the 
Catholic  community  at  large,  but  "principes  popolusque 
universi" — "to  the  princes  and  peoples  of  the  earth," 
Leo  XIII  called  on  all  Christians  to  unite  in  a  universal 
Church  of  which  the  Pope  should  be  the  head.  The  epistle 
may  be  regarded  as  the  spiritual  will  and  testament  of  the 
man  who  changed  the  Papal  policy  and  set  aside  the  tra- 
ditions of  centuries. 

Undoubtedly  Leo  XIII  was  convinced  that  the  times  were 
ripe,  or  soon  would  be,  for  the  political  cooperation  of  all 
men  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  society  and  calling 
themselves  Christians  against  revolutionary  teachings  which, 
in  Leo's  opinion  threaten  the  destruction  alike  of  religion 
and  society.  The  necessity  of  such  a  combination  against  so- 
called  anti-social  forces  was  advanced  by  him  as  the  strong- 
est argument  for  the  submission  of  Christendom  to  the 
clerical  despotism  of  Rome.  In  the  encyclical  he  pointed 
to  the  irreligious,  critical  and  philosophical  spirit,  to  the 
craze  for  all  sorts  of  Utopian  chimeras,  to  the  lowering  of 
the  moral  standard,  and  especially  to  the  loss  of  respect  for 
institutions  consecrated  by  time  and  for  traditions,  as  things 
fostering  the  development  of  passions  which  might  soon  and 
forever  sweep  away  blind  faith  in  the  supernatural  and 
mediaeval  society,  the  ancient  regime  in  religion,  politics 
and  economics.  He  further  pointed  out  all  the  signs  of  the 
times  which  indicate  that  the  people,  though  they  may  differ 
about  details,  will  soon  agree  to  the  necessity  of  overthrow- 
ing everything  that  exists. 

The  remedial  measure  recommended  by  Leo  XIII  was 
that  the  wheel  of  time  be  turned  back  six  centuries.  While 
he  recognized  the  fact  that  the  world  is  in  its  death  agony, 
to  save  it,  he  recommended  that  it  be  coerced  into  conditions 
from  which  it  emancipated  itself  after  centuries  of  blood- 
shed. While  he  perceived  the  necessity  of  the  evolution 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  so  as  to  adapt  itself  to  new  con- 
ditions brought  about  by  universal  forces,  while  he  perceived 

246 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         247 

the  necessity  of  an  evolution  doing  away  with  the  mediaeval 
trappings  of  the  Church,  with  official  Catholicism,  with 
feudal  ecclesiastical  organizations,  perhaps  with  its  entire 
external  framework,  yet,  he  held  fast  to  the  spirit  which 
made  the  Papacy  a  curse  to  the  human  race.  He  did  not 
intend  to  free  it  from  spiritual  and  economic  bondage  but 
to  enchain  it  anew  with  fetters  of  modern  construction.  In 
Leo  XIII 's  mind,  the  evolution  of  the  Catholic  Church 
should  adapt  itself  to  the  modem  evolution  of  the  Papacy, 
that  it  be  enabled  to  retain  and  to  extend  its  hold  on  the 
conscience  and  the  purse  of  the  peoples.  To  make  such  a 
process  possible  it  is  necessary  to  unite  Christendom  under 
the  authority  of  the  Pope,  otherwise  the  Papacy  might 
before  long  be  left  without  a  constituency  in  the  most  civil- 
ized countries.  It  appears  that  Leo  XIII  had  carefully 
studied  the  history  of  Japan  and  considered  the  fate  of  her 
spiritual  sovereigns  and  that  of  many  other  Popes  and 
Grand  Lamas  in  historical  times  and  in  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

Leo  XIII  probably  believed  that  the  human  race, 
although  distributed  among  so  many  people,  various  in  hue 
and  intelligence,  is  yet  interpenetrated  by  a  common  re- 
ligious feeling  and  that  the  differences  of  feature  and  belief 
are  only  external,  as  of  vessels  large  or  small,  but  all  con- 
taining the  same  holy  water.  This  is  undoubtedly  true. 
The  question  is,  what  is  this  holy  water?  Is  it  that  which 
man  and  priest  has  consecrated  or  is  it  of  divine  origin, 
that  of  reason  and  righteousness,  of  humanity,  which  forti- 
fied the  martyrs  of  faith,  of  spiritual  and  political  liberty 
and  moved  them  to  suffer  willingly  for  the  advancement  of 
the  human  race?  It  is  a  question,  the  solution  of  which 
will  determine  not  only  the  success  or  failure  of  Leo's 
scheme  but  also  the  fate  of  the  Papacy  and  the  future  of 
Christian  civilization.  Had  Leo  XIII  considered  that  the 
Teutonic  race  has  for  centuries  attempted  to  solve  this  ques- 
tion, that  Wickliffe,  Luther,  William  of  Orange,  Crom- 
well, the  Pilgrims,  the  Fathers  of  the  Great  American  Re- 
public, the  German,  English  and  American  peoples  have 
labored  for  its  solution  ?  Had  his  Holiness  read  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independencef 

That  Leo  XIII 's  sole  purpose  in  this  movement  was  the 
salvation  and  aggrandizement  of  the  Papacy  is  clearly 
apparent  from  the  conditions  which  he  imposed.     Under 


248  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

date  of  October  1,  1894,  "Innorainato"  writes  from  Rome: 
"As  to  concessions,  it  is  a  matter  of  tact,  of  means,  and 
Rome  is  a  school  of  government  'with  strict  political  discip- 
line, wlu'U  the  interests  of  a  cause  require  concessions.  Leo 
XIII  will  not  be  more  severe.  As  a  j^eneral  rule,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  I  can  say  that  the  Holy  See  will  show  infinite  lib- 
erality so  long  as  matters  of  dogma  do  not  enter  into  the  ex- 
change of  opinion.  To  stand  by  the  'Credo,'  and  the  defi- 
nitions of  the  councils,  in  other  matters  to  leave  to  each 
Church  its  individuality,  such  seemis  to  be  the  main  point  of 
view  of  his  Holiness.  It  is  the  criterion  w^hich  guides  him 
in  his  negotiations  with  the  East;  it  should  be  that  which 
would  guide  him  in  the  negotiations  which  may  arise  with 
Anglicanism." 

In  an  address  delivered  at  Preston,  England,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1894,  Cardinal  Vaughan,  speaking  officially,  presented 
Leo  XIII 's  views  on  the  subject  of  Christian  Union.  After 
promising  that  any  proposal  to  such  an  end  "which  does 
not  include  the  Apostolic  See  and  the  two  hundred  and  forty 
millions  of  Christians  in  communion  with  it,  is  self -refuted 
and  meaningless,"  he  proceeded  to  explain  the  "compro- 
mises and  concessions"  which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
can  make,  and  those  it  cannot  make,  to  bring  about  the  unity 
of  Christendom.     The  concessions  it  cannot  make  are  these : 

' '  First,  it  cannot  accept  reunion  on  a  basis  of  formularies 
and  creeds,  while  each  one  is  left  free  to  give  to  doctrines 
expressed  in  them  his  own  meaning  and  interpretation. 
Second,  it  cannot  accept  reunion  based  upon  an  exclusive 
belief  in  the  historic  Christ,  human  and  divine.  The  unity 
must  be  based  upon  Christ  as  a  living  divine  teacher,  and  it 
must  be  one  of  true  discipleship.  Third,  it  cannot  accept 
reunion  or  communion,  were  it  even  to  unite  the  whole 
human  race,  on  condition  of  change  or  modification  or  com- 
promise in  her  own  divine  constitution,  as  drawn  up  by  her 
divine  founder." 

Concessions  which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  can  make 
are  "changes  and  modifications  in  her  discipline,  and  in 
legislation  which  concerns  times  and  circumstances,"  such 
as  clerical  celibacy,  communion  of  both  kinds,  its  liturgy, 
and  the  language  of  the  liturgy.  "As  to  these,"  said  Car- 
dinal Vaughan, ' '  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  w^ould  not  hes- 
itate again  to  make  concessions,  as  it  did  in  the  past,  for 
the  sake  of  some  great  good,  could  they  be  shown  to  surpass 


PAPAL  AjVIBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         249 

in  value  adhesion  to  the  points  of  discipline  to  be  relaxed. ' ' 
But  "no  question  of  reunion  can  be  seriously  entertained 
without  a  recognition  of  the  principle  and  fact  of  unity, 
the  visible  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  continued  to  this 
dmf,  undiminished  in  its  perfection. ' ' 

This,  of  course,  involves  the  complete  surrender  of  the 
Protestant  position.  In  other  words,  Leo  XIII  demanded 
the  return  of  the  Protestants  under  the  dominion  of  the 
infallible  Pope. 


CHAPTER  III 

Celibacy  and  the  Sham  Concessions  of  the  Vatican. 
The  only  important  concession  which  the  Papacy  "can 
make"  is  that  relating  to  clerical  celibacy.  Apparently 
this  is  a  surrender  of  the  fundamental  principle  in  the 
structure  of  the  Roman  theocracy.  The  modem  evolution 
of  the  Papacy  was  made  possible  only  by  clerical  celibacy. 
Abolish  it  and  the  entire  hierarchical  structure  of  the 
Church  falls  and  with  it  the  Papacy.  It  is,  therefore,  nec- 
essary to  examine  into  the  aniynus  imponentis.  Nobody  sup- 
poses tliat  Leo  XIII  intended  to  commit  political  hara-kiri 
or  to  destroy  the  Papacy.  It  is  generally  acknowledged 
that  the  Vatican  is  well  informed  on  nearly  everything  that 
is  going  on  in  the  world,  of  the  condition  of  nations  and  of 
classes,  and  of  their  possibilities  and  future.  Therefore, 
the  Vatican  is  well  informed  of  the  spiritual  and  economic 
condition  of  the  clergy  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  Greek  regular  clergj%  from  whom  alone  promotions 
to  the  episcopate  are  made,  is  already  living  in  celibacy.  To 
improve  their  low  economic  and  degraded  social  position 
the  Greek  secular  or  married  clergy  in  Europe,  as  well  as  in 
Asia  ]\Iinor,  would  accept  celibacy  or  anything  else.  Should 
a  union  be  effected,  it  would  be  but  a  question  of  time,  of  a 
generation  or  two,  when  the  entire  Greek  clergy  would  live 
in  a  celibate  state. 

As  to  the  Anglicans,  a  large  proportion  of  whom,  even  of 
the  rectors,  at  present  have  to  support  themselves  and  their 
families  on  a  few  hundred  dollars  a  j^ear;  it  is  also  but  a 
question  of  time  when  their  condition  will  force  them  into 
celibacy.  The  London  Spectator  says :  ' '  The  clergymen  of 
the  Church  of  England  either  must  become  for  the  most 
part  celibate,  or,  if  they  insist  on  marrying,  they  must 
resign  themselves  to  living  as  the  artisans  live,  and  to  bring- 
ing up  their  children  to  various  trades.  In  the  former  case 
their  condition  will  be  assimilated  to  that  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  priest ;  in  the  latter,  to  that  of  the  dissenting  min- 
ister of  the  poorer  type. ' '    A  few  years  ago  an  attempt  was 

250 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         251 

made  in  England  to  raise  by  voluntary  subscription  a  fund 
for  supplementing  the  stipends  of  the  poorer  Anglican 
clergj'men  and  particularly  of  the  curates  who  have  to  live 
on  such  small  sums  as  the  rectors,  out  of  their  ever  shrink- 
ing resources,  feel  able  to  dole  out  to  them.  The  attempt 
failed,  because  the  moneyed  power  in  England,  and  for  that 
matter  the  ivorld  over,  has  no  interest  in  elevating  the  con- 
dition of  the  learned  estate.  Through  the  change  in  eco- 
nomics and  the  growth  of  Capitalism  the  resources  of  the 
rectors  are  gradually  diminished  and  eventually  will  almost 
cease.  In  a  generation  or  two  the  Anglican  clergymen  will 
be  placed  before  the  alternative  of  living  either  in  celibacy 
and  in  the  hope  of  being  successful  in  the  scramble  for  the 
few  prizes  in  their  calling  or  of  living  permanently  in  pov- 
erty, accepting  social  reduction  for  themselves  and  their 
families.  The  Papal  concession  as  to  clerical  celibacy  in 
the  case  of  the  Anglicans  means  nothing  more  than  a  short 
wait  for  its  enforcement  by  the  leveling  process  of  the  mod- 
ern economic  and  social  forces.  With  the  approach  of  the 
collapse  of  the  endowment  system  the  Anglican  clergymen 
can  now  see  the  handwriting  on  the  wall. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  Anglican  clergymen  is  also 
applicable  to  the  dissenting  ministers  in  England  and  the 
United  States.  The  immense  majority  of  them  are  under- 
paid. The  prizes  are  few.  Though  they  do  not  start  with 
the  assumption  that  their  children  must  be  brought  up  in 
the  environments  of  luxury,  yet,  as  educated  men  they  feel 
more  keenly  the  pangs  of  poverty  than  the  laborer  does 
and  are  naturally  anxious  to  secure  for  their  children  a  lib- 
eral education.  Consequently  the  number  of  college  grad- 
uates entering  the  ministry  diminishes  from  year  to  year. 
Should  a  union  with  the  dissenting  bodies  be  effected,  the 
poor  clergy  would  find  in  the  fixed  position  which  Rome  can 
almost  guarantee  a  recompense  for  the  loss  of  family  life. 

The  concession  as  to  clerical  celibacy  is  more  nominal  than 
real.  Leo  XIII  perfectly  understood  that  the  economic 
causes  which  alone  made  it  possible  for  Gregory  VII  to 
decree  and  enforce  celibacy,  are  now  effectively,  though 
under  changed  conditions,  operating  in  favor  of  his  own 
scheme.  At  that  time  the  feudal  system  became  firmly 
established.  It  oppressed  the  lower  clergy  and  robbed 
them  of  the  means  for  a  proper  livelihood.  To  escape  the 
tyranny  of  the  lords  and  to  secure  the  guarantee  of  a  proper 


252  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  fixed  living  they  sacrificed  tlieir  rights  as  men  and 
citizens  and  became  part  of  the  Roman  ecclesiastical- 
l)olitical  machine.  Just  so  industrial  feudalism  and  Cap- 
italism are  now  hiving  their  heavy  hands  on  the  learned  and 
on  the  clerg}'.  Witii  the  i)rogress  of  the  division  of  the 
people  into  the  very  rich  and  the  very  poor  the  prizes  in 
the  liberal  professions  and  in  the  dissenting  Churches  are 
gradually  reduced  in  number  because  the  rich  will  congre- 
gate in  a  few  parishes  and  the  poor  are  not  able  to  pay  ade- 
quate salari&s.  Here,  as  well  as  in  England,  it  would  be 
but  a  question  of  time  when  the  great  body  of  the  dissent- 
ing clergy  would  prefer  celibacy  to  the  submersion  in  pov- 
erty. Besides,  the  Papal  court  would  take  good  care  to 
convince  clergj^men  that  as  celibates  only  they  could  expect 
promotion  to  the  hierarchy  and  to  the  fat  stipends. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Is  the  Catholic  Church  of  America  a  Possibility?  As  to 
the  probability  of  Christian  Union,  it  is  well  first  to  consider 
the  chances  of  success  in  relation  to  the  orthodox  or  Greek 
Church,  to  the  Armenian  Church,  and  to  the  Lutheran 
Church.  A  fusion  of  the  first  two  of  these  ecclesiastical 
bodies  with  Rome  has  been  repeatedly  attempted  by  the 
Popes,  and  there  have  been  times  when  such  efforts  seemed 
to  have  a  fair  chance  of  success.  But  in  the  end  they  have 
miscarried,  not  so  much  because  of  differences  in  theolog- 
ical doctrine,  as  because  of  differences  of  ritual  and  of  hier- 
archical organization.  Leo  XIII,  in  his  encyclical,  assures 
the  Eastern  schismatics  that,  in  the  event  of  their  reunion 
Avith  the  Roman  Church,  the  privileges  of  their  patriarch- 
ates and  the  rites  of  their  liturgies  shall  never  be  abrogated. 
These  certainly  are  large  concessions,  but  the  rulers  of 
Russia  can  never  surrender  the  real  source  of  their  auto- 
cratic power,  their  episcopal  character  and  authority  as 
the  head  of  the  Greek  Church,  and,  therefore,  cannot 
acknowledge  the  Papal  claim  to  the  succession  of  St.  Peter. 
Moreover,  the  political  aspirations  of  the  Czars  and  of  the 
Slavophiles  are  based  on  the  character  of  the  Czar  as  the 
spiritual  head  of  the  Greek  Church.  It  is  also  very  ques- 
tionable whether  the  Russian  bishops  and  theologians  would 
submit  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope  now  that  his  utterances 
have  been  invested  with  the  attribute  of  infallibility.  As 
for  the  Armenian  Church,  its  ultimate  absorption  by  the 
Orthodox  Church  of  Russia  rather  than  by  Catholicism 
seems  more  likely.  The  outcome  of  the  last  war  with  Tur- 
key was  to  include  a  large  part  of  Armenia  within  Russian 
territory,  and  the  next  partition  of  the  Ottoman  possessions 
will  doubtless  make  the  great  mass  of  Armenians  subjects  of 
the  Czar. 

Germany  as  the  cradle  of  Protestantism  is  also  the  cradle 
of  science.  The  system  of  education  in  Germany  and  the 
deep  religious  feeling  of  the  nation  t^nd  to  develop  Protest- 
antism as  a  purely  ethical  force  free  from  all  taints  of  super- 

253 


254  CASSOCK  A>JD  SWORD 

stition.  With  a  people  \'irtnally  governed  by  universities, 
in  which  the  spirit  of  researcli  rules  supreme,  and  tradition- 
ally filled  with  a  fierce  hatred  of  Popery,  all  efforts  of  Leo's 
successors  must  be  in  vain.  In  Germany  all  religious  mat- 
ters will  be  settled  at  the  bar  of  final  resort,  the  court  of 
the  world's  scholarship.  Therefore,  a  union  with  the  Luth- 
eran Church  appears  to  be  a  chimerical  project. 

As  to  the  Anglican  Church,  conditions  and  circumstances 
are  somewhat  different.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  within  a 
generation  past  there  has  been  evident  in  the  Anglican 
Church  a  strong,  almost  irresistible  movement  for  a  closer 
connection  with  Rome.  This  movement  is  as  marked  among 
the  Episcopalians  of  this  country  as  it  is  in  England.  "In- 
nominato"  says  in  one  of  his  letters:  "It  is  from  England 
and  the  United  States  that  Leo  XIII  has  received  the  most 
marked  encouragement.  ...  I  know  that  parleys,  that  ex- 
changes of  opinions,  have  taken  place  between  Anglicans 
and  Catholics.  The  Pope,  very  eager  for  all  news  concern- 
ing it,  had  a  well-informed  person  come  to  Rome  in  order 
that  he  might  find  out  all  that  was  said,  done,  and  prepared. 
Startled  by  what  he  learned,  and  by  these  new  currents  of 
thought,  he  began  a  broad  inquiry  into  the  manner  of  enter- 
ing into  relations  with  the  Anglican  Church." 

A  flood  of  Catholic  reaction  has  inundated  Protestantism 
in  the  Anglican  Church.  Mass  is  substituted  for  com- 
munion. The  sacraments  are  multiplied  to  include  penance, 
matrimony,  and  extreme  unction.  Communion  of  both 
kinds  is  avoided.  Religious  orders  in  w'hich  celibacy  is 
required  are  established.  The  confessional  is  introduced 
into  many  churches.  All  are  now  ritualistic,  and  the  only 
existing  division  is  as  to  the  degree  of  ritualism.  Besides, 
the  old  Tractarian  movement,  by  its  revival  of  the  doctrines 
of  baptismal  regeneration  and  apostolic  succession,  paves 
the  way  to  a  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  a  continuous  stream  of  converts. 
The  conversions  in  England  and  in  the  United  States  have 
become  so  common  that  the  secular  press  seldom  prints  an 
account  of  a  conversion  unless  there  are  some  very  excep- 
tional circumstances  connected  with  it.  The  present  policy 
of  Rome  in  both  England  and  this  country  discourages  pub- 
lic exaltation  over  conversion  to  Roman  Catholicism.  The 
sentiment  seems  to  be  that  the  logical  tendency  of  ritualism 
is  the  union  w'ith  Rome. 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         255 

As  a  purely  religious  matter  the  question  as  to  the  proba- ' 
bility  of  a  union  of  the  Anglican  Church  with  Rome  might 
be  answered  in  the  affirmative.  But  such  a  union  is  more 
than  a  religious  question ;  it  is  a  political  question  of  racial 
complexion,  in  England  as  well  as  in  the  United  States. 
Considered  from  the  political  standpoint,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  Papacy  would  ever  reap  the  political  benefits 
it  expects  from  such  a  union.  England's  economic  and 
political  future  depends  on  her  ability  to  maintain  the 
British  empire  intact.  To  do  this  England  must  for  some 
time  to  come,  certainly  under  the  present  economic  system 
in  society,  sustain  monarchy.  Notwithstanding  the  prog- 
ress of  democracy  in  England  her  people  thoroughly  un- 
derstand this. 

Superficial  observers  think  that  England  will  be  a  repub- 
lic before  long.  She  has  been  nearer  republicanism  than 
she  is  now  or  will  be  so  long  as  the  British  empire  is  not 
destroyed  by  agencies  outside  of  the  control  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.  They  know  that  when  the  royal  standard 
is  pulled  down,  the  empire  will  be  pulled  down.  To  sustain 
monarchy  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  reigning 
family  should  be  in  full  spiritual  sympathy  with  a  majority 
of  the  people,  and  that  the  head  of  the  State  remain  also 
the  head  of  the  church  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 
Should  a  union  with  Rome  be  effected  under  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  Episcopal  Church  as  a  State  institution  and  as 
a  constituent  part  of  the  empire,  the  British  sovereign  would 
not  only  part  with  the  episcopal  character,  but  cease 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  majority  of  the  English 
people.  The  immediate  effect  of  a  union,  as  well  as 
of  disestablishment,  an  apparently  sure  outcome  of  the 
democratic  progress,  will  be  a  split  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
the  more  numerous  evangelical  or  Anglo-Saxon  party  be- 
coming more  Protestant  still.  Then  the  Roman  Catholic 
party  will  be  in  a  hopeless  minority,  an  object  of  political 
distrust,  of  persecution  perhaps,  without  the  compact  politi- 
cal power  to  sustain  monarchy,  or  to  assist  the  Papacy  in 
its  ambitious  designs.  Of  course,  under  such  conditions 
there  can  be  no  thought  of  the  royal  family's  submission 
to  Rome.  It  would  follow  the  majority  and  with  it 
gradually  drift  into  the  full  current  of  Protestantism.  Be- 
sides, since  the  modern  evolution  of  the  art  and  means  of 
war,  the  very  existence  of  the  British  empire  depends  on 


256  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  unity  and  military  strength  of  the  German  people.  It 
is  not  verj-  likely  that  the  English  people,  who  delight  in 
their  empire  ratlier  than  in  any  dream  of  Christian  union 
or  in  the  splendor  of  the  Papacy,  or  the  British  royal 
family  will  risk  to  lose  the  support  of  their  country's 
natural  and  only  true  ally,  by  submission  to  the  Papacy, 
Germany's  arch-enemy. 

To  the  superficial  observer  of  the  Catholic  movement  in 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States  it 
appeal's  more  than  probable  that  the  ritualistic  party  will 
ultimately  join  the  Church  of  Rome.  Though  the  extreme 
ritualists  declare  themselves  as  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
doctrine  of  Papal  supremacy  as  any  Protestant,  yet,  hold- 
ing as  they  do,  that  the  Church  is  infallible,  there  seems  to 
be  no  consistency  in  the  refusal  to  acknowledge  the  in- 
fallibility of  the  Pope.  Arrayed  against  the  fundamental 
principle  of  Protestantism  these  extremists  not  only  hesitate 
to  cross  the  line,  but  those  of  their  numbers  who  do  so  are 
spoken  of  as  deserters  from  the  Christian  camp  and  as 
victims  of  intellectual  imbecility  and  moral  perversion.  To 
the  plain  intellect  it  appears  that  the  extremists  must  either 
logically  and  inevitably  journey  "en  masse"  to  Rome  or 
lose  their  religious  faith  altogether.  What  is  it  that  pre- 
vents their  crossing  of  the  Rubicon? 

The  emotional  movement  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
represented  by  the  extreme  ritualists  is  only  a  symptom  of 
that  fear  which  in  the  expectation  of  a  deluge,  has  seized 
the  classes  and  sentimentalists  in  Christendom.  The  part 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  which  represents  the  classes  more 
than  any  other  religious  body  in  the  United  States,  seeks 
in  a  return  to  child-like  faith  a  cure-all  for  the  evils  be- 
setting a  dying  world  and  in  the  worship  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  King  and  Master  the  only  protection  for  the  tottering 
structure  of  society.  Like  Leo  XIII,  the  extreme  ritualists 
in  the  American  Episcopal  Church  recognize  in  Protestant- 
ism an  irresistible  revolutionary  force  that  must  be  totally 
destroyed  or  it  will  break  down  the  barriers  set  up  by 
avarice  and  absolutism  to  exclude  the  humane.  The  ritu- 
alists hold  that  our  social,  political,  and  religious  evils  have 
their  source  in  the  intellectual  and  social  emancipation  of 
the  civilized  world  from  the  faith  and  status  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  therefore  intend  to  resist  skepticism  and  revo- 
lutionary fervor  with  the  assertion  that  the  only  fact  of 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES  257 

history  of  essential  importance  is  the  government  of  the 
world  by  a  personal  God.  They  reject  the  fundamental 
idea  of  Protestantism  that  religions  allegiance  should  be 
to  principles  merely.  In  this  they  set  themselves  against 
the  spiritual  and  racial  forces  that  by  their  progressive 
nature  have  silently  and  irresistibly  changed  the  moral 
and  political  character  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  the 
United  States  as  well  as  in  England.  They  attempt  to 
stem  and  roll  back  the  current  of  thought  which  has  ac- 
cumulated force  and  volume  during  three  centuries.  The 
Catholic  movement  in  the  Episcopal  Church  of  this  country 
is  effervescent  in  character,  not  sustained  by  a  deep  re- 
ligious feeling  or  a  healthy  patriotic  sentiment  or  by  eco- 
nomic, social  and  political  necessities.  Since  the  War  of 
Independence  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  United  States 
has  been  thoroughly  nationalized.  It  has  become  an  Ameri- 
can institution.  The  immense  majority  of  its  members  are 
of  Anglo-Saxon  descent.  Eacial  traditions  and  all  the 
influences  of  Americanism  oppose  a  union  with  Rome. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  effect  such  a  union  would 
produce  here,  as  in  England,  a  split  in  the  Church.  How- 
ever, such  an  attempt  will  never  be  made.  Yet,  the 
Catholic  movement  in  the  American  Episcopal  Church 
has  an  important  bearing  on  the  religious,  social,  and 
political  future  of  the  United  States.  To  the  careful  ob- 
server this  movement  appears  rather  in  opposition  to  Rome, 
aiming  at  the  organization  of  an  American  Catholic  Church. 
If  the  extreme  ritualists  could  effect  such  an  organization 
they  would  solve  the  Romish  question  which  seriously  threat- 
ens the  peace  and  prosperity  of  our  country.  It  would  be  a 
rational  and  politic  solution.     Is  such  a  solution  possible? 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Mission  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  The 
extraordinary  growth  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
this  country  has  been  due  to  three  causes:  the  large  Irish 
inuuigration,  the  inattention  of  the  American  people  to 
the  growth  of  the  foreign  plant,  and  the  missionary  or 
semi-iudei)endent  character  of  the  Church,  thus  avoiding 
irritating  friction  and  apparently  recognizing  the  American 
doctrine  of  the  consent  of  the  governed.  Irish  immigra- 
tion must  soon  almost  cease.  The  American  people  are 
now  partly  aroused  to  the  dangers  of  Romanism.  Fully 
aroused,  they  will  enact  such  laws  as  will  make  the  extension 
of  Romanism  a  difficult  and  unprofitable  matter.  Leo  XIII 
himself  deprived  the  Roman  establishment  in  the  United 
States  of  its  missionary  character. 

As  soon  as  the  American  people  regulate  Catholic  immi- 
gration and  enforce  the  American  education  of  our  youth 
without  distinction  as  to  creed  and  descent,  the  superstitious 
and,  therefore,  slavishly  submissive  element  among  the 
great  body  of  Catholics  will  die  out  and  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion must  decrease ;  certainly  it  cannot  rapidly  increase. 
It  will  lose  its  foreign  or  Irish  character  and  then  can  more 
readily  merge  in  to  any  specifically  American  institution. 
The  spirit  of  American  independence  must  exert  itself. 
It  will  protest  against  foreign  or  Papal  sovereignty.  It 
will  certainly  rebel  against  vice-regal  government  and 
hierarchical  despotism.  It  will  demand  for  laymen  a  share 
in  the  government  of  the  Church,  a  general  accounting  and 
a  public  administration  of  the  funds.  It  will  destroy  in 
the  then  better  educated  Roman  Catholic  population  the 
idolatrous  subordination  to  the  priesthood  and  in  the  lower 
or  parish  clergy  the  fear  of  the  Roman  camarilla  and  of 
their  instrument,  the  hierarchy.  Should  the  Papacy  not 
fully  succeed  in  the  execution  of  Leo  XIII  's  policy  of  mak- 
ing the  United  States  a  Papal  State  and  the  seat  of  the 
Papacy,  the  mission  of  Mgr.  Satolli  and  of  his  successors  may 
appear  a  fatal  error,  leading  in  its  final  consequences  to  the 
establishment  of  an  American  Catholic  Church.     Before  Leo 

258 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         259 

XIII  decided  on  Satolli's  mission  his  Holiness  should  have 
carefully  weighed  all  the  chances  of  success  or  failure  and 
should  have  considered  that  in  these  times  it  is  wise  in 
Church  and  State  to  refrain  from  a  reckless  and  arbitrary 
assertion  of  power.  The  American  people  may  be  willing 
in  time  to  come  to  elect  a  Pope  as  their  President,  to  change 
the  Constitution  so  as  to  make  his  term  of  office  a  life 
tenure,  but  at  present  they  will  rebel  against  the  thought 
of  being  governed  by  any  ruler  other  than  of  their  own 
choice. 

The  outside  world,  hitherto,  has  known  nothing  that 
could  be  concealed  as  to  questions,  difl'erences,  and  trials 
in  the  administration  of  Papal  authority  in  the  United 
States  or  elsewhere.  That  they  exist  there  is  no  doubt. 
There  is  in  this  country  among  Catholic  priests  a  spirit  of 
restlessness  and  of  protest  against  the  despotism  of  the 
hierarchy,  a  longing  for  the  exertion  of  manhood  and  in- 
dependence. The  proceedings  of  the  diocesan  clergy 
against  Bishop  Bonacum  of  Nebraska  and  against  the  Arch- 
Bishop  of  St.  Louis,  the  revolutionary  protest  of  the  clergy 
of  the  diocese  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  the  matter  of  the 
appointment  of  a  Bishop,  demanding  his  election  on  the 
American  plan,  and  other  matters  from  time  to  time  coming 
to  the  surface  indicate  that  the  American  spirit  of  in- 
dependence has  already  penetrated  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  Catholic  clergy  and  has  entered  the  sanctum  of  the 
Catholic  press  which  has  been  charged  with  the  crime  of 
exposing  Bishops  to  the  ridicule  of  the  faithful  and  non- 
Catholic.  This  appears  from  the  deliberations  at  a  secret 
meeting  of  the  Arch-Bishops  of  the  Roman  Church,  held 
in  Chicago,  September,  1893.  There  the  question  of  the 
hostile  attitude  of  some  of  the  Catholic  journals  toward 
the  hierarchy  came  up  for  discussion.  A  circular  was 
issued  which  throws  a  strong  and  peculiar  light  on  the 
position  of  the  Roman  Church  in  regard  to  the  liberty  of 
the  press  in  the  United  States.  In  this  circular  the  Arch- 
Bishops  threaten  the  publishers  with  measures  aiming  at 
the  suppression  of  their  respective  publications,  that  is 
with  financial  ruin.  To  fortify  their  un-American  position 
the  Arch-Bishops  cite  decrees  230  and  231  of  the  Third 
Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore.  The  circular  reads  partly 
as  follows:  "It  is  a  source  of  sadness  and  humiliation  to 
us  that  our  position  forces  us  again  and  again  to  caution 


260  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

editors  of  Catholic  newspapers,  tliat  neitlier  they  themselves 
nor  those  who  assist  them  should  attack  eeele.siasties,  and 
above  all  Bishops,  nor  should  they  constitute  themselves 
the  judges  of  Episcopal  decisions,  decrees,  and  such  mattere 
pertaining  to  the  administration  of  a  diocese,  or  find  fault 
with  them.  .  .  .  And  lest  the  present  evil,  a  daily  growing 
source  of  scandal  to  Catholics  and  others,  should  continue 
to  flourish,  we  judge  well  to  meet  it,  not  by  cautions  and 
advices  merely,  but  also  by  ecclesiastical  penalties.  Where- 
fore, for  the  future,  laymen  or  clerics  who  themselves  or 
through  others  associated  wdth  or  encouraged  by  them,  in 
public  print  assail  by  wanton  words,  ill-natured  utterances, 
railleries,  those  in  authority — much  more  if  they  presume  to 
carp  at  or  condemn  a  Bishop's  methods  of  administration 
— all  these  principals,  partners,  abettors,  disturbers,  con- 
temnors,  and  enemies  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  as  they  are, 
we  declare  guilty  of  gravest  scandal,  and  thereby,  their 
fault  being  proved,  deserving  of  censure."  This  reads 
very  much  like  a  decree  of  the  Inquisition.  If  the  gentle- 
men who  issued  this  circular  had  the  power,  they  would 
undoubtedly  have  ordered  the  unfortunate  editors  exciting 
their  wrath  to  be  burned  at  the  stake. 

The  spirit  of  rebellion  against  Papal  and  hierarchical 
despotism  and  greediness  has  in  various  forms  entered  the 
American  Roman  Catholic  world  deeper  than  is  apparent 
to  the  casual  observer.  McGlynn's  sustained  example  has 
done  and  is  doing  much  in  that  direction.  It  demonstrated 
that  Americanized  Irish  Catholics  will  sustain  even  a 
mountebank  in  his  opposition  to  clerical  despotism  when- 
ever he  is  of  sufficient  shrewdness  to  masquerade  his  ambi- 
tions and  selfish  designs  as  patriotic  passion  and  humane 
endeavor.  Considered  from  the  Roman  standpoint,  the 
rehabilitation  of  McGlynn  was  an  error  in  policy  of  possibly 
momentous  consequences  to  the  American  schemes  of  Leo 
XIII.  McGlynn's  case  was  used  as  a  club  with  which 
IMgr.  Satolli  beat  into  submission  the  refractory  hierarchy 
of  Jesuitical  affiliation  of  the  United  States.  It  may  turn 
out  to  be  a  boomerang  of  tremendous  force.  The  peculiar 
settlement  of  this  case  of  clerical  insubordination  and 
slander  has  weakened  the  authority  of  the  hierarchy  and 
assailed  the  exceptional  position  of  the  Pontiff. 

Other  signs  of  the  growth  and  spread  of  the  rebellious 
spirit  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  our  country  are 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         261 

the  fact  that  the  Deputy-Pope  has  been  openly  insulted  and 
defied  by  Irish  Catholics  in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  and  the  organiza- 
tion by  fourteen  Roman  Catholic  Polish  Churches  of  "The 
Catholic  Church  in  America"  as  a  semi-independent  body 
and  the  election  of  the  Rev.  Vilatte  as  its  Bishop.  This 
revolt  from  Roman  control  is  primarily  the  result  of  the 
arbitrary  interference  of  the  hierarchy  in  the  affairs  of 
congregations  who  contended  that  they  should  have  a  voice 
in  the  selection  of  a  pastor,  in  the  administration  of  the 
parish,  and  in  the  application  of  the  funds.  At  the  first 
Convention  of  the  newly  organized  Church,  held  at  Cleve- 
land, O.,  in  August,  1894,  Bishop  Vilatte  said : 

"We  are  met  to  proclaim  all  over  the  land:  'Beware  of 
despotism  if  you  love  liberty.'  The  American  Catholic 
Church  will  be  composed  of  men  of  the  different  nationalities 
of  the  old  world,  yet  here  united  to  one  great  American 
nation,  and  led  by  chief  pastors  who,  being  Catholic  in 
faith  and  thoroughly  American  in  spirit,  are  yet  adapted 
to  understand  and  enter  into  the  several  national  peculiar- 
ities of  their  respective  flocks.  The  Catholic  Church  in 
America,  in  rejecting  false  doctrines,  has  put  itself  in 
doctrinal  harmony  with  the  East,  and  entered  into  unity 
of  spirit  with  the  Ecumenical  thrones  of  Jerusalem,  the 
mother  of  all  the  churches,  and  Antioch,  Constantinople, 
Alexandria,  and  the  'Old  Catholics'  of  Holland,  Germany, 
France,  Switzerland,  and  Ceylon.  We  allow  no  dissidence 
in  matters  of  faith.  We  recognize  the  Ecumenical  councils 
as  the  fountain  head  for  the  unity  of  faith.  The  new 
Church  will  favor  the  education  of  the  children  of  the 
congregation  in  the  public  schools  of  America.  It  is  also 
in  favor  of  the  utmost  freedom  of  discussion  of  all  subjects 
pertaining  to  religion." 

In  the  Convention  an  effort  was  made  by  some  of  the 
delegates,  notably  those  of  Pennsylvania,  to  have  the  Con- 
vention iDreak  away  absolutely  from  the  Pope.  It  was 
openly  asserted  by  many  delegates  that  the  Romish  author- 
ities were  not  capable  of  administrating  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  and  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  was  scouted  at.  It 
is  a  significant  fact  that  the  dedication  of  the  first  church 
edifice  of  the  new  organization  was  the  occasion  of  a  riot 
that  resulted  in  bloodshed  and  in  an  attempt  to  destroy 
the  new  structure. 

It  is  but  a  question  of  time,  depending  on  political  de- 


262  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

velopments  in  Germany,  when  the  German  Roman  Catholics 
in  the  United  States  will  follow  the  example  of  their  Polish 
co-religionists.  All  such  movements  nnist  iind  their  resting 
l)lace  in  the  Episcoi)al  (.'hurch.  Its  greatest  strength  and 
growtli  in  the  cities,  which  are  due  to  the  increasing  taste 
of  the  Protestant  nrhan  population  for  its  ritual,  will  also 
influence  these  movements.  The  remarkable  energy  dis- 
played by  its  parishes  of  late  years  in  pushing  forward 
their  religious  and  charitable  enterprises,  will  enable  the 
Episcopal  Church  to  reap  all  the  benefits  of  a  possible 
schism  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  our  country. 
Therefore,  within  two  or  three  generations  the  Episcopal 
Church  may  exert  a  commanding  iiifluence  in  American 
society,  should  it  gain  control  of  the  urban  population,  be- 
cause, as  the  cities  go,  so,  before  long,  goes  America.  This 
eventuality  rests  on  the  presumption  that  the  dissenting 
bodies  fail  in  their  mission  as  harbingers  of  democracy  and 
nurseries  of  scientific  and  ethical  progress. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The    Transformation    in    Protestant    Belief.    In    the 

encyclical  on  Christian  unity  Leo  XIII  denounced  the  Free 
Masons  as  enemies  of  religious  unity  and  declared  that  to 
Protestants  there  remains  no  certain  rule  of  faith  or  author- 
ity, therefore  some  going  so  far  as  to  deny  the  divinity  of 
Christ  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  ending  in 
naturalism  and  materialism. 

What  are  the  facts  on  which  this  assertion  is  based?  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  with  progressive  education,  partic- 
ularly during  the  last  twenty  years,  the  transformation  in 
Protestant  belief  has  been  unexampled  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  This  has  been  brought  about  by  a  movement 
apparently  in  the  direction  of  the  intellectual,  away  from 
faith ;  by  an  examination  into  the  evidences  of  the  supernat- 
ural in  an  intellectual  and  scientific  spirit  essentially 
opposed  to  faith.  It  is,  as  some  assert,  a  movement  toward 
agnosticism,  the  destruction  of  the  old  belief  in  the  super- 
natural and  hence  incidentally  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  Discrediting  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God,  it  de- 
stroys the  pillar  of  all  faith  in  the  Christian  world. 

It  is  a  fact  that  the  Continental  universities  and  the 
educated  in  Europe  have  accepted  the  conclusions  of  the 
Dutch  and  German  Biblical  critics,  while  the  Church  of 
England  has  formally  refused  to  condemn  the  results  of 
their  investigation.  Even  Roman  Catholic  scholars  have 
accepted  them  in  widely  published  declaratory  articles  which 
were  not  condemned  by  the  Holy  Office.  It  did  condemn  an 
article  contributed  by  Mr.  St.  George  Mivart  to  the  "Nine- 
teenth Century"  in  which  the  writer  advises  the  Pope  to 
depose  the  present  expounders  of  the  Scriptures  in  Rome 
and  to  install  the  Freethinkers  of  Holland  and  Germany 
in  their  places.  Adopting  all  the  results  of  their  criticism 
]\Ir.  IMivart  concluded  that  the  Old  Testament  abounded  in 
fables,  myths,  and  legends  which  could  have  originated  only 
in  the  childhood  of  the  world.  He  declared  that  human 
nature  revolted  at  the  thought  that  the  majority  of  mankind 

263 


204  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

will  be  eternally  damned  and  at  the  hideous  pictures  of  the 
torments  to  which,  according  to  orthodox  teaching,  the 
lost  souls  will  be  forever  subjected.  A  sharp  scrutiny  of 
Leo  XIII 's  encyclical  on  the  Bible  impresses  the  reader  with 
the  sagacity  of  a  policy  which  seems  carefully  to  avoid 
every  conflict  with  these  Biblical  critics.  As  to  the  study 
of  tiie  Bible  Pope  Leo  said : 

"Catholic  teachers  must  be  well  versed  in  Oriental  and 
classical  lore  and  languages.  They  ought  to  study  the  more 
ardentl}'  and  acquire  the  more  of  secular  as  well  as  religious 
wisdom,  the  more  the  signs  of  the  times  and  the  advance  of 
secular  learning  and  scientific  research  sternly  demand 
the  apologetic  exertion  of  the  defenders  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  a  keener  critical  acumen,  sharpened  by  a  stricter 
and  more  assiduous  application  to  historical  and  linguistic 
studies." 

Incidentally  the  Pope  denied  that  there  is  a  real  conflict 
between  faith  and  knowledge,  between  Biblical  doctrine  and 
the  discoveries  of  modern  science.  Quoting  from  St. 
Augustine,  "God's  spirit  who  spoke  through  the  sacred 
writers,  did  not  intend  to  teach  men  things  that  were  of 
no  use  for  their  salvation,"  Pope  Leo  placed  himself 
virtually  in  the  position  of  the  Anglican  Church  on  this 
question  of  apologetics.  The  very  fact  that  the  Papacy 
having  for  centuries  opposed  the  study  of  the  Bible,  thought 
it  necessary  to  publish  an  encyclical  on  the  Bible,  is  sufficient 
proof  that  the  intellectual  movement  which  resulted  from 
the  application  of  the  demonstrations  of  science  and  of 
Biblical  criticism  to  matters  of  faith  has  also  assailed  the 
citadel  of  superstition,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
that  its  defenders  are  at  a  loss  how  to  repel  it. 

To  the  scholars  of  the  world  it  is  evident  that  scientific 
research  and  Biblical  criticism  in  the  end  must  lead  the 
educated  in  Christendom  not  to  sentimental  atheism  or 
deism  but  to  agnosticism,  because  without  revelation  nothing 
else  remains.  In  this,  the  movement  differs  from  the 
skepticism  of  the  Eighteenth  century. 

The  question  is,  and  its  solution  is  a  paramount  duty, 
in  what  manner  and  to  what  extent  will  this  movement 
affect  the  masses  in  Protestant  countries.  Its  solution  will 
not  only  decide  the  fate  of  the  Papacy  and  the  direction  of 
Christian  civilization  in  Europe  but  also  the  success  or 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         265 

failure  of  Leo  XIII 's  plan  for  Christian  unity  in  the  United 
States  and  their  economic,  social,  and  political  future.  It 
will  also  decide,  whether  the  era  of  social  changes  now  fast 
approaching,  shall  be  one  of  gradual  progress,  whether  it 
shall  be  another  volcanic  upheaval  of  society,  or  whether  it 
shall  be  an  era  of  spiritual  darkness  under  the  despotism  of 
theocracy. 

The  effect  of  this  movement  on  the  masses  depends  in 
England  and  in  the  United  States  primarily  on  the  ability 
and  possibility  of  the  Protestant  clergy  and  universities 
to  adapt  all  future  theological  and  philosophical  specula- 
tions to  racial  traditions  and  a  certain  common  body  of 
established  truths  which  they  will  find  in  the  Bible  hidden 
under  a  heap  of  legendary  rubbish,  and  which,  while  as- 
sailing superstition,  oppose  all  destructive  social  forces. 
The  intellectual  movement,  though  questioning  the  divine 
character  of  the  Bible,  has,  nevertheless,  its  orgin  in  the 
Bible,  in  its  unchangeable  moral  and  political  truths.  It 
is  nothing  else,  than  a  continuation  of  the  Reformation,  an 
evolutionary  process  through  which  Protestantism  shall  be 
raised  to  a  higher  plane  in  ethics.  Without  the  revelation 
of  these  Biblical  truths  the  moral  progress  of  the  human 
race  would  have  been  impossible. 

Protestantism  is  a  revolutionary  force  drawn  from  the 
ethics  of  the  Bible,  the  most  democratic  book  in  the  world. 
From  the  study  of  the  Bible,  when  its  sublime  truths  as  to 
man  and  his  relations  to  society,  as  to  his  duties,  his 
liberties,  and  his  equality  were  disclosed,  the  Albigenses 
and  the  Waldenses,  the  Lollards  and  the  Hussites,  drew  the 
inspiration  to  rebel  against  their  oppressors.  The  Reforma- 
tion destroyed  the  universal  clerical-political  despotism  of 
the  Papac}'^,  it  taught  Pope  and  King  alike  that  the  human 
is  a  force  superior  to  superstition  and  fear.  During  the 
centuries  in  which  the  ethical  treasures  of  the  Bible  were 
generally  accessible,  political  freedom  and  prosperity  were 
secured  by  the  peoples  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which 
they  held  the  Bible  to  be  the  ultimate  authority  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  their  political  existence  and  the  only  guide 
on  the  path  of  life.  Since  the  Reformation  the  Bible  has 
been  woven  into  the  life  of  the  Teutonic  peoples;  it  has 
been  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  masses  and  the  source  of 
every  revolutionary  movement,  from  Luther's  declaration 


266  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

before  Charles  V  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  from 
the  revolt  of  the  NcthcrUnids  to  the  War  of  the  Rehellio7i 
and.  the  unification  of  Gennany. 

Tile  movement  toward  agnosticism  was  greatly  advanced 
by  the  Parliament  of  Religions  held  at  the  World's  Exhibi- 
tion at  Chieago.  It  was  a  sensational  side  show,  in  which 
prominent  representatives  of  Christian  sects  and  of  many 
other  religious  systems  took  part.  By  their  presence,  de- 
clarations, and  fraternal  action  these  Christian  clerics  de- 
monstrated before  Christendom  that  in  their  opinion 
Christianity  is  not  the  sole  true  and  perfect  religion,  not 
the  only  religion,  whereby  men  can  be  saved.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  not  the  only  true  and  perfect  religion,  it  is  a 
fabrication  of  men  and  not  the  sole  and  complete  revela- 
tion of  truth  from  God  himself.  If  He  did  not  come  down 
from  Heaven  in  order  to  teach  men  the  only  truth.  Christian 
theolog)^  is  built  on  fiction.  God  commands  and  does  not 
argue  with  men.  Christianity  is  either  His  Command  or 
it  is  a  superstition.  The  very  fact  of  their  presence  at 
the  Parliament  of  Religions  proved  that  the  Christian  clerics 
recognized  the  claim  of  all  other  religious  systems  as  resting 
on  a  level  with  Christianity  as  to  truth,  and  therefore 
acknowledged  the  agnostic  theory,  that  all  religious  belief 
is  onlj^  a  childish  expression  of  the  universal  effort  of  men 
to  penetrate  into  the  unknown. 

The  Parliament  of  Religions  demonstrated  the  agnostic 
indifference  to  all  religion  of  the  highly  educated  clergy  of 
all  the  Christian  sects  that  were  represented.  This  so- 
called  Parliament  of  Religions  was  gotten  up  for  the  purpose 
of  influencing  public  opinion  in  favor  of  Leo  XIII 's  project 
of  Christian  unity.  While  the  ignorant  masses  of  the 
Romish  Church  could  draw  no  conclusions  from  such  a 
gathering,  the  Protestant  masses  probably  did.  The  fact 
is,  the  Protestant  sects  walked  unconsciously  into  the  trap 
skillfully  set  for  them. 

The  so-called  Briggs  rebellion  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
was  also  in  the  direction  of  agnosticism,  forecasting  danger- 
ous division  in  all  the  Protestant  Churches.  It  failed,  be- 
cause the  leaders  had  not  the  qualities  requisite  for  the 
leadership  in  a  movement  for  the  intellectual  emancipation 
of  men,  while  the  orthodox  party  had  at  least  the  courage 
of  their  convictions  or  that  for  the  defense  of  their  interests. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Wanings  of  the  Protestant  Churches,  Notwith- 
standing,- that  the  American  people,  like  all  Teutonic  peoples, 
are  possessed  of  a  deep  religious  feeling,  of  the  sense  of 
righteousness,  and  therefore  of  a  strong  moral  purpose, 
yet,  statistics  gathered  by  men  whose  research  commands 
confidence  prove  that  American  Protestants  have  ceased 
to  be  a  church-going  people.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Protest- 
ant Churches  have  lost  their  hold  on  the  multitude.  It 
would  be  folly  to  conceal  the  truth,  that  Protestant  con- 
gregations to-day  are  more  or  less  mere  society  affairs,  as- 
sociations for  mutual  admiration  and  for  social  pleasures, 
the  whole  covered  with  a  thin  veneer  of  conventional  piety, 
laid  on  to  cover  passion  and  to  mislead  a  community  which 
is  skeptical  as  to  all  professions  of  orthodox  faith  and 
personal  holiness. 

The  Protestant  Churches  are  to-day  associations  of  people 
who  either  simply  follow  the  traditions  and  habits  of  old 
because  it  is  fashionable  and  secures  in  a  democratic  com- 
munity with  no  other  honorary  distinctions  as  to  rank  or 
caste,  a  certain  social  standing  in  their  respective  com- 
nuinities,  or  who  are  moved  by  selfish  purposes  to  cloak 
shortcomings  in  personal  and  civic  virtues  or  to  influence 
the  masses  for  the  benefit  of  the  old  regime.  Others  again 
are  of  a  sickly  sentimentalism,  which  for  instance  manifests 
itself  in  knitting  woolen  socks  for  savages  in  tropical 
countries,  w^hile  the  children  of  poverty  who  rove  all  around 
us  and  gradually  drift  into  barbarism,  are  barefooted  and 
morally  and  physically  neglected.  Then  there  are  the 
people  who  have  a  lien  on  righteousness,  the  holier  than 
thou  people,  the  cranks  and  the  fanatics,  the  inventors  of 
"isms"  and  self -constituted  guardians  of  other  people's 
morals,  the  emotional  and  hysterical  natures,  the  hypocrites 
and  blatherskites  who  would,  if  they  had  the  chance,  per- 
secute the  Savior  for  associating  with  the  sinners  and  fail- 
ing to  frown  upon  the  amenities  of  life.  These  people  have 
set  up  a  perverted  moral  code  evolved  from  the  qualities  of 

267 


268  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

mind,  heart,  and  soul  whith  made  the  Inquisition  and  the 
bui'niu^  of  the  witches  possible. 

Christ  eame  to  establish  rif^hteousness  and  justice  as  the 
fundamental  ])rineiples  of  society.  Wlieii  the  Protestant 
Ciuirches  sustained  wrong:  toward  individuals  and  classes, 
when  they  were  made  servants  of  Manunou,  they  failed  in 
their  apostleshiji.  With  a  luirrow  conception  of  their  mis- 
sion the}'  lost  all  connection  with  the  multitude.  Instead 
of  drawing  inspiration  and  nourishment  from  the  ethics  of 
the  Bil)le,  they  sulisisted  on  mosaic  lore  and  fables,  which 
in  our  times  common  sense  will  no  longer  accept  as  sacred 
writing's  or  the  expressions  of  tiie  omniscient  God. 

In  an  age  of  rapid  intellectual  and  social  progress,  in 
which  millions  of  newspapers  spread  philosophical  thought 
and  the  results  of  scientific  research  to  the  humble  cottage 
and  to  the  workshop,  when  the  great  questions  of  life  are 
secular  and  are  the  property  of  the  masses,  set  terms  and 
phrases,  platitudes  and  glittering  generalities  tire  the  peo- 
ple, however  warm  of  heart  and  noble  in  spirit.  The  con- 
ception that  the  Protestant  Churches  must  not  participate 
in  the  activities  of  the  world,  has  belittled  and  perverted 
their  influence.  The  Churches  ought  to  have  been  the  first 
to  right  wrongs,  but  with  the  narrow  orthodox  conception 
of  their  sphere,  they  have  permitted  the  avaricious  and  the 
corrupt  to  despoil  the  people.  The  Protestant  Churches 
failed  to  drive  the  money  changers  and  usurers  from  the 
temple  and  consequently  lost  their  hold  on  the  masses. 
Instead  of  accommodating  themselves  under  the  changed 
economic  and  social  conditions  to  the  requirements  of  their 
religion,  which  propagates  the  doctrine  of  the  brotherhood 
of  humanity,  and  to  change  the  means  employed,  the  modem 
Christians  of  the  Protestant  faith  made  their  religion  ac- 
commodate itself  to  them,  that  they  might  enjoy  this  life 
to  the  full,  amass  riches,  and  disobey  the  commands  of 
Christ. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Protestant  Clergy  and  their  Dependent  Position. 

Supported  in  college  by  pious  offerings,  a  large  part  of 
the  Protestant  clergy  have  acquired  the  habit  of  dependence 
and  become  obsequious  to  wealth.  INIinisters  trained  under 
social  conditions,  on  which  charity  has  set  its  stamp,  are  not 
sustained  by  manlj^  independence,  which  insists  on  following 
its  own  lead.  To  gain  preferment  they  have  to  be  pliant 
and  subservient ;  they  dare  not  offend  the  rich  supporters 
of  churches  or  administrators  of  funds,  from  which  the 
meager  salaries  are  often  increased.  When  the  Rev.  Henry 
A.  Adams  of  New  York  quit  the  Episcopal  Church,  he  said 
in  his  farewell  letter: — 

"With  a  rector  called  by  a  vestry  made  up  of  the  rich 
men  of  the  place — a  rector  intimidated,  harassed,  made  by 
his  very  tenure  impotent,  the  hired  mouthpiece  of  this 
vestry  of  rich  men,  sometimes  immoral,  often  ignorant, 
usually  officious,  always  in  the  way — here  he  is  to  teach 
these  rich  masters  of  his  what  they  already  know  and  like. 
He  is  to  conduct  service  as  they  direct.  He  is  to  tolerate 
and  endorse  any  abomination  which  may  have  been  (and 
usually  is)  established  in  the  parish.  He  is  to  belie  him- 
self, his  message,  God's  very  work  for  peace's  sake." 

Is  this  picture  overdrawn?  The  Protestant  ministers  of 
all  sects  labor  more  or  less  under  like  disadvantages  and 
humiliating  conditions  whether  the  congi^egations  are  rich 
or  poor.  The  difference  is  only  in  the  degree  of  servitude 
according  to  the  degree  of  wealth  possessed  by  the  con- 
gregations or  their  patrons.  In  point  of  fact,  Protestant 
ministers  are  to-day  beset  by  all  the  evils  which  flow  from 
modern  Capitalism,  like  all  wage  earners  they  are  the  serfs 
of  Capitalism,  depending  for  their  very  living  on  the  whims, 
prejudices,  and  social  necessities  of  the  monej^-getters  and 
vultures  of  modem  society  or  on  that  class  of  usually  very 
vulgar  people  called  the  self-made  men. 

It  is  lamentable  that  such  should  be  the  social  condition 
of  the  ministers.     But,  is  it  not  partially  their  fault?     In 

269 


270  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

this  age  of  education  and  critical  research  and  challenge 
anil  sliar{)  controversy,  there  is  no  place  for  weak  cliaracters 
in  the  ministry  of  the  Protestant  Church,  of  the  church  of 
revolutionary  origin  and  progress.  If  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel  has  any  opinions  which  cannot  stand  the  sunlight 
of  the  truth,  tlie  sooner  lie  gets  rid  of  them  the  better. 
Then  let  him  stand  up  for  his  convictions,  for  that  which 
he  thinks  is  right  and  to  be  his  Creator's  command.  Let 
him  exert  his  independence  and  manhood!  Let  him  draw 
his  inspiration  from  the  ethics  of  the  Bible,  from  the  tradi- 
tions and  history  of  his  race !  Let  him  sometimes  look 
to  Jesus,  the  man  and  humanitarian,  that  he  may  be  the 
bearer  of  His  message  to  the  downtrodden  of  the  land. 
Let  him  keep  always  in  mind  that  the  Church  should  exist 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  bettering  the  condition  of  man, 
that  it  is  founded  on  that  theory  only  and  that  such  has 
been  Christ's  mission  and  sole  purpose.  Let  him  combat 
the  excessive  craving  for  wealth  and  let  him  understand 
that  the  loss  of  the  restraint,  which  the  traditions  of 
monarchies  and  aristocracies  have  imposed  on  the  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  accumulation  of  riches,  has  charged  the 
American  ministrv'  with  the  most  imperative  duty  of  guard- 
ing society  against  the  e\ils  arising  from  the  greed  for  gold. 
Forgetting  Christ's  admonition  "Thou  canst  not  serve  two 
masters"  the  Protestant  ministrj^  tumbled  into  all  sorts  of 
inconsistencies  and  humiliating  positions  in  their  painful 
efforts  to  serv^e  God  and  IMammon. 

Speaking  on  the  subject  "The  ^linister  and  Good  Govern- 
ment" at  an  annual  meeting  of  Alumni  of  a  Theological 
Seminary,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst  of  New  York  City, 
said: 

' '  History  is  going  up  hill  and  not  down.  "We  can  malign 
David  for  his  vices,  and  pour  hot  shot  into  poor  old  Solomon, 
and  he,  being  a  back  number  and  having  no  relative  to 
pound  us,  the  whole  performance  warms  and  stimulates 
the  blood,  if  the  church  is  cold.  But  such  performances 
are  really  cold  enough  to  discourage  perspiration  in  July. 
Here  are  certain  moral  ideas  to  he  pushed.  Who  is  going 
to  push  them  if  the  pulpit  does  not? 

' '  There  is  not  a  great  deal  of  statesmanship  in  the  pulpit 
to-day,  and  outside  of  the  pulpit  there  is  none  that  I  know 
of.  There  is  plenty  of  politics,  but  no  statesmanship. 
Politics  is  statesmanship  with  the  moral  questions  left  out. 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         271 

Politics  alone  is  worse  than  pure  depravity.  It  contains 
just  that  tincture  of  decency  which  makes  it  unreliable. 

"Statesmanship  requires  an  ethical  element,  but  ethics 
does  not  pay.  If  you  go  into  the  ethical  husiness  you  must 
dispense  with  terrapin.  Statesmanship  must  be  found  in 
the  pulpit.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  civic  and  political 
questions  being  ethical,  what  reason  is  there  which  prevents 
pulpit  prophets  from  marshalling  the  army  of  events? 
They  used  to  do  it.     Why  not  now?" 

Why  not  now?  Because  men  cannot  serve  Mammon  and 
marshal  the  army  of  events  at  the  same  time.  The  Ameri- 
can pulpit  prophets,  who  in  the  past  marshalled  the  army  of 
events,  were  not  the  mouthpieces  and  slaves  of  plutocracy. 
The  men  who  to-day  are  worshiping  in  splendid  church  edi- 
fices to  satisfy  their  vanity  and,  to  deaden  the  voice  of  con- 
science, build  chapels  for  the  poor  and  pay  for  the  services 
of  pulpit  prophets,  are  just  the  men  who  want  plenty  of  poli- 
tics, that  are  worse  than  pure  depravity,  to  further  their 
antisocial  purposes.  They  detest  statesmanship  that  re- 
quires an  ethical  element,  excludes  corrupt  practices  and 
promises  no  pecuniary  returns.  The  army  of  events,  if  it 
means  anything,  is  the  onward  movement  of  the  collective 
body  of  a  nation  toward  democracy,  for  the  moral,  economic, 
and  social  elevation  of  the  masses,  attainments,  that  gener- 
ally do  not  pay  the  men  who  are  the  patrons  of  churches  and 
the  keepers  of  the  conscience  of  the  pulpit  prophets  of  to- 
day. Yes,  the  minister,  who  to-day  goes  into  the  ethical 
business  must  dispense  with  terrapin,  that  is,  he  must  expect 
to  be  turned  out  of  his  living,  to  be  persecuted,  defamed,  and 
exposed  to  starvation  and  social  degradation. 

If  Dr.  Parkhurst  to-day  would  go  into  the  ethical  business 
on  a  large  scale,  that  is,  if  he  should  attempt  to  pass  in  his 
advance  on  the  strongholds  of  vice  and  politics,  that  are 
worse  than  pure  depravity,  a  certain  well  defined  and  easily 
recognized  line  of  demarcation,  Avhere  obedience  to  duty 
and  conscience  must  assail  the  social  forces  now  dominant 
in  society,  he  would  soon  discover  the  reason  which  prevents 
our  modern  pulpit  prophets  from  marshalling  the  army  of 
events.  Should  he,  for  instance,  attempt  to  prosecute  the 
real  harbingers  of  the  social  evil,  the  owners  of  the  houses 
in  which  it  flourishes,  or  follow  the  real  sources  of  corrup- 
tion in  politics,  he  might  meet  the  men  of  whom  Rev.  Adams 
said,  that  they  are  "sometimes  immoral,  often  ignorant, 


272  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

usually  officious,  always  in  the  way — the  men  who  force 
(jod's  sen'ant  to  belie  himself,  his  message,  God's  very 
work."  Dr.  Parkhurst  partially  succeeded  in  his  crusade 
against  vice  and  Tammany  because  he  had  the  sense  and 
the  courage  to  advance,  as  opportunity  offered,  on  racial- 
religious  lines  and,  therefore,  captivated  the  hearts  of  the 
Protestant  masses.  lie  secured  the  support  of  Capital 
because  Capital  is  sometimes  afraid  of  an  uprising  of  the 
people  which  sooner  or  later  would  have  occurred  and 
secured  to  them  exclusively  the  fruits  of  victory.  Such  an 
uprising  must  be  of  revolutionary  character  on  purely 
ethical  and  racial  lines.  It  must  have  crushed  Rome,  Mam- 
jnon,  and  the  servants  of  both.  The  men  who  are  daily 
scheming  and  bargaining  to  make  money,  whose  business 
principles  are  narrow,  low,  selfish,  and  grovelling,  who 
within  the  last  generation  brought  to  infamous  ruin  enor- 
mous enterprises,  could  not  be  and  are  not  in  honest 
sympathy  Avith  this  figiiting  parson. 

Dr.  Parkhurst  pushes  certain  moral  ideas.  In  this  he 
sets  a  noble  example.  But  pushing  certain  moral  ideas  on 
local  issues  is  a  different  thing  from  marshalling  the  army  of 
events.  The  one  may  be  a  local  matter  of  opportunity  only, 
the  other  is  a  revolutionary  process  aiming  at  the  intel- 
lectual, economic,  and  social  advancement  of  a  nation.  Dr. 
Parkhurst,  like  others  of  his  learned  brethren  ministering 
to  wealthy  congregations,  finds  himself  in  a  piteous  pre- 
dicament. In  receipt  of  a  large  and  fixed  income  and  in 
the  enjoyment  of  all  the  environments  of  a  wealthy  society, 
yet  conscious  of  failing  in  their  duty  toward  God  and  their 
fellow  men,  they  are  as  ministers  as  much  at  issue  with 
their  professed  religion  as  they  are  as  men  with  their 
conscience.  They  waver  in  their  attitude  towards  the 
wrongs  in  society,  just  as  in  their  faith  in  the  Bible  as  the 
infallible  word  of  God.  Thus  in  a  sermon  on  woman 
suffrage.  Dr.  Parkhurst  said: 

"The  Bible,  it  is  true,  is  a  very  old  book,  and  was  com- 
posed by  men  who  had  no  knowledge  of  our  day  and  no 
presentiment  of  the  fertility  and  expansiveness  of  idea  that 
w^ould  obtain  in  the  closing  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
centur5\ ' ' 

The  idea  here  expressed  is  that  the  Bible  is  not  the  word 
of  the  omniscient  God  but  a  composition  by  men.  And  yet, 
in  the  same  sermon.  Dr.  Parkhurst  said,  that  the  question 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         273 

at  issue  could  only  be  decided  by  holding  distinctly  to 
Scriptural  grounds.  With  one  breath  the  learned  Doctor 
denies  the  Divine  character  of  the  Bible,  with  the  other 
the  pulpit  orator  refers  his  hearers  to  its  teachings  as  of 
Divine  wisdom  and  the  only  principles  for  the  settlement 
of  every  question  as  to  human  conduct. 

How  can  the  Protestant  masses,  who  are  sufficiently  en- 
lightened to  apply  the  test  of  common  sense  to  all  matters 
spiritual  and  temporal,  yet  are  too  sober-minded  or  not  of 
that  degree  of  learning  to  fathom  the  subtle  influences, 
moving  our  learned  and  highly  salaried  theologians  to  pro- 
fess faith  in  the  supernatural  and  to  deny  the  only  source  of 
such  faith,  entrust  this  class  of  men  with  the  sublime  mis- 
sion of  marshalling  the  army  of  events?  It  is  true,  as  Dr. 
Parkhurst  stated  in  his  address  to  theological  students,  that 
no  man  can  lead  the  masses  with  so  much  effect  as  the  ac- 
credited prophets  of  Almighty  God.  The  trouble  is,  that 
"with  the  fertility  and  expansiveness  of  idea  that  obtain 
in  the  closing  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century ' '  the  people 
demand  to  see  the  credentials  of  these  prophets  and  insist 
on  a  strict  investigation  as  to  their  qualifications.  The  only 
credentials  the  Protestant  masses  will  recognize  as  genuine 
and  entitling  the  bearer  to  their  full  confidence  are  those 
which  are  taken  from  the  book  of  books.  The  qualifications 
insisted  upon  are  those  prescribed  by  the  book  of  books, 
which  to  the  Teutonic  peoples  is  the  Alma  Mater  of  their  na- 
tional existence,  the  source  of  their  ethical  being,  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  their  earthly  existence.  "The  very  old 
book"  contains  the  truths  which  will  be  the  guiding  princi- 
ples of  the  Teutonic  race  to  the  end  of  the  world.  "The 
men  who  composed  it"  had  the  knowledge  of  our  day  and 
the  presentiment  of  the  fertility  and  expansiveness  of  idea 
that  obtain  in  our  days  when  they  laid  down  the  principles 
for  the  settlement  of  every  question  as  to  human  conduct 
and  on  which  the  ideal  democracy  of  the  future  will  be 
reared. 

In  our  century  there  is  a  moral  insurgence  in  the  minds 
of  grave  men  against  the  wrongs  which  the  masses  suffer 
from  the  existence  of  medieval  institutions  and  prejudices 
and  from  the  avarice  and  depravity  of  the  few.  They  are 
the  men  of  courage  and  capacity  to  combat  these  evils  and 
their  tendencies  first  and  to  educate  their  victims  after- 
wards.    The  Protestant  ministers  are  called  upon  to  follow 


274  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  oxamplo  of  these  men.  Tims  only  will  they  follow  the 
example  of  their  Master.  The  noble  example  set  by  Dr. 
Parkhurst  should  teach  the  Protestant  ministers  their  power 
and  their  duty.  But  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  and  of 
humanity  there  is  no  half-way  station,  there  are  no  places 
of  rest.  God  does  not  argrue  and  bargain  w'ith  men.  His 
servants  cannot  argue  and  bargain  wath  the  oppressors  of 
men,  of  his  children.  Christ  said  "Thou  canst  not  serve 
God  aJid  iMammon."  Girt  up  with  Bible  truths,  steeled  with 
the  inflexible  purpose  to  serve  only  God  and  their  fellow 
men,  the  Protestant  ministers  can  appeal  to  the  Protestant 
masses  for  recognition  as  the  accredited  prophets  of  Al- 
mighty God  to  marshal  the  army  of  events, — to  lead  in 
the  movement  for  the  intellectual,  economic,  and  social 
advancement  of  the  American  people.  Then,  and  then  only 
the  Protestant  ministers  will  he  able  to  assert  their  spiritual, 
economic,  and  social  independence. 

As  far  as  the  present  and  future  welfare  of  the  American 
people  and  that  of  the  human  race  is  concerned,  our 
ministers  and  the  learned  generally  should  not  readily 
dispense  with  terrapin,  as  Dr.  Parkhurst  suggests.  Why 
should  they,  Doctor?  Are  the  common  people  not  willing 
that  they  should  have  it  rather  than  the  money-getters 
whose  business  calls  into  play  the  lowest  animal  passions 
in  man  which  in  the  end  always  prove  destructive  to  society 
because  they  arrest  its  ethical  progress ! 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Workingmen  and  the  Protestant  Churches.    In  the 

Summer  of  1893  a  Chicago  Socialist  spoke  at  Chautauqua  on 
"the  attitude  of  the  workingmen  in  this  country  toward 
the  Churches."  He  divided  the  workingmen  into  three 
classes,  so  far  as  religion  goes:  those  who  are  dominated 
hy  tlie  Church  and  fear  it,  those  indifferent  to  it,  and  those 
hostile  to  it.  In  the  first  category  he  places  all  the  Catholic 
Irish  workingmen  and  those  of  the  Protestant  faith  living 
in  regions  only  slightly  touched  by  modern  culture.  In  the 
second  category  he  places  the  Protestant  workingmen  living 
on  farms  and  in  country  towns,  and  in  the  third,  a  majority 
of  the  Protestant  workingmen  employed  in  the  larger  cities 
and  in  the  centers  of  industry. 

This  somewhat  sensational  statement  is  not  without  foun- 
dation. Infidelity  is  in  this  country  probably  much  more 
frequent  proportionately  among  the  uneducated  rich  than 
among  the  poor.  American  workingmen  generally  are 
not  yet  altogether  removed  from  religious  influences.  But 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  an  immense  majority  of  wage  earn- 
ers distrust  the  Churches  and  the  ministry  as  supposed 
instruments  of  plutocracy  for  the  repression  of  the  masses. 
Such  a  sentiment  seems  to  augur  ill  for  society,  should  its 
existence  depend  on  orthodox  belief  in  its  divine  origin. 
Under  a  continuance  of  the  present  economic  and  social 
conditions  with  their  tendency  to  enlarge  the  gulf  between 
the  classes  it  will  be  but  a  question  of  time  when  this  major- 
ity will  gradually  drift  into  infidelity  and  into  the  Social- 
istic Labor  Party.  A  social  revolution  would  then  be  im- 
minent. Though  this  party  appears  as  yet  as  an  exotic 
plant  on  American  soil,  under  a  continuance  of  the  condi- 
tions mentioned,  it  may  before  long  be  destined  to  exert, 
either  in  its  present  form  or  more  probably  in  an  American 
garb,  a  momentous,  possibly  most  destructive  influence  on 
American  society. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Irish,  the  workingmen  are  no 
longer  induced   by  promises  of  rich  spiritual  compensa- 

275 


276  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

tion  in  the  life  to  come  to  endure  all  the  artificial  hardships 
of  earthly  existence.  For  all  practical  purposes,  our 
economic,  social,  and  political  future  will  depend  on  the 
moral  and  political  action  of  the  workingmen  massed  in  the 
big  cities  and  in  the  centers  of  industry.  Their  intellectual, 
economic,  and  social  advancement  is  therefore  a  religious 
and  a  political  question,  each  of  mighty  import,  and  it  ap- 
pears to  be  the  imperative  duty  of  the  Protestant  ministry 
to  labor  incessantly  to  this  end  and  to  study  intelligently, 
and  without  bias  of  any  sort,  the  efiect  of  the  ethical 
and  economic  forces  on  the  constitution  of  society,  the  so- 
called  "Social  Question"  which  in  its  substance  in  noth- 
ing more  or  less  that  the  struggle  of  the  intellectual  class 
to  control  society  and  of  the  individual  to  enjoy  his  in- 
herent right  to  a  proper  portion  of  whatever  nature  or 
his  toil  produces.  The  various  religious  systems  when  first 
they  came  into  existence  recogiaized  this  right  under 
different  forms  to  an  extent  which  the  progress  of  thought 
or  civilization  at  the  time  demanded  or  taught  to  be  politic. 
Christ  gave  to  this  demand  manifold  and  distinct  expres- 
sion ;  in  fact,  the  Christian  Church,  before  its  elevation  to 
the  position  of  a  State-institution  and  the  evolvement  of 
a  hierarchy  and  consequent  theocracy,  in  its  worldly 
adaptation  relied  exclusively  upon  the  desire  of  the  in- 
dividual for  the  enjoyment  of  this  inherent  right. 

So  long  as  the  human  mind  sought  for  worldly  progress 
and  the  highest  moral  and  material  attainments  solely 
through  or  in  religious  faith,  the  embodiment  of  this  desire 
was  always  clothed  in  a  religious  garb.  The  Reformation 
formed  the  spiritual  arch  over  which  the  thought  of  the 
philosopher — so  far  as  the  relations  of  man  to  society  were 
concerned — was  transmitted  to  the  realm  of  politics,  from 
cloister  shades  to  the  realistic  demands  of  every  daj'  life ; 
that  is  to  say :  in  the  relations  of  men  to  one  another  or  to 
society,  the  advancement  in  science  gradually  brought  about 
a  severance  between  things  spiritual  and  temporal.  The 
spirit  of  meekness  in  the  masses,  and  their  faith  and  trust 
in  a  future,  so  far  as  it  promised  a  recompense  for  the  hard- 
ships of  earthly  life,  departed,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
history  the  desire  of  the  masses  for  the  amelioration  of  their 
condition  was  formulated  in  a  purelj'^  worldly  manner,  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  where  it  says : 

' '  That  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed 


PAPAL  AMBITION  AND  PROTESTANT  MASSES         277 

by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among 
them  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That 
to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned ;  that  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  de- 
structive of  these  ends  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter 
or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its 
foundation  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in 
such  forms  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their 
safety  and  happiness." 

From  the  date  of  this  declaration  the  social  question  grew 
by  degrees  to  its  present  embodiment  and  its  solution  will 
decide  the  future  of  the  Protestant  Churches  in  America. 
Should  they  remain  servants  of  Mammon  and  continue  to 
set  themselves  against  the  spirit  of  the  times,  the  plans  of 
the  Papacy  as  to  Christian  unity  and  the  supremacy  of 
Rome  in  the  United  States  will  be  carried  into  effect  or  a 
social  revolution  will  change  the  whole  scheme  of  our  moral 
and  religious  life.  But  should  the  Protestant  clergy  mar- 
shal the  army  of  events  in  the  spirit  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  Christian  unity  will  mean  the  union  of  all 
the  Protestant  Churches  and  of  the  masses  of  the  people  in 
the  brotherhood  of  humanity. 


PART  X 

FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON 

CHAPTER  I 

An  American  Patrimonium  Petri.  So  lon^'  as  the  people 
in  a  deinot-ratic  cominunity  are  of  the  same  race  and  on  a 
level  in  intellectual,  economic,  and  social  conditions,  a  priest- 
hood, in  the  spirit  and  in  the  flesh  foreign  to  the  people  and 
subject  to  the  orders  of  a  foreign  power,  cannot  exercise  a 
controlling  political  influence  for  the  simple  reason  that  the 
people  do  not  believe  in  a  divinely  appointed  order  of  gov- 
ernment. But  from  the  moment  that  in  such  a  republic  the 
social  order  is  disturbed,  either  through  tiie  absorption  into 
the  body  politic  of  numerous  elements  of  other  races  of 
inferior  intellect  and  of  a  superstitious  character,  or  by  a 
process  of  division  into  castes  or  into  the  very  rich  and 
poor,  it  is  but  a  question  of  time  when  the  people  will  be 
deprived  of  their  liberties  and  coerced  by  the  classes  or  be 
priest-ridden  and  so  come  to  submit  to  a  de  facto  theocratic 
government. 

The  recognition  of  this  historical  truth  had  directed  the 
thoughts  of  Leo  XIII  towards  the  United  States  as  the  land 
of  promise.  Certain  infallible  signs  seem  to  indicate  that 
his  Holiness  had  a  clear  perception  as  to  the  ultimate  out- 
come of  European  affairs  in  their  relation  to  the  Papacy, 
and  that  his  endeavors  at  Christian  unity  in  Europe  and  a 
reestablishment  of  France  in  the  hegemony  of  that  continent 
must  fail.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  really  cherished 
the  presumptuous  hope  of  changing  the  course  of  events  in 
Europe.  There  is  much  to  sanction  the  assumption  that 
from  the  beginning  of  his  Pontificate  he  directed  his 
thoughts  towards  the  United  States  as  the  future  home  of 
the  Papacy.  The  economic,  political,  social,  and  moral 
grounds  for  assuming  the  possibility  of  the  permanent  estab- 
lishment of  the  Papacy  as  the  supreme  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral government  in  the  United  States,  have  been  set  forth. 
The  question  is,  can  the  Papacy  succeed  ? 

278 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  279 

The  migration  of  the  Papacy  to  the  United  States  is  pos- 
sible only  under  the  condition  that  it  either  can  acquire  by 
purchase  or  grant  a  Patrimonium  Petri  on  American  soil 
or  that  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  and  the  Pontifi- 
cate can  be  united  in  one  person.  A  religious-political  insti- 
tution like  the  Papacy,  representing  240,000,000  of  people 
of  divers  races  and  many  nationalities,  can  only  exist  as  an 
independent  political  power,  as  an  organic  whole ;  it  cannot 
merge  into  other  political  institutions  or  become  coordinate 
thereto,  or  dependent  thereon,  without  either  being  swal- 
lowed up  or  reduced  to  a  national  plant  and  a  Primateship, 
The  religious-social-political  conditions  prevailing  in  a  de- 
mocracy would  sooner  or  later  exert  their  leveling  and  dis- 
solving influences.  Once  reduced  in  its  ecclesiastical  and 
political  status  to  obedience  to  the  laws  and  to  conformity 
with  the  customs  of  any  country,  the  Papacy  must  lose  its 
cosmopolitan  character  and  drop  its  claim  to  the  succession 
of  St.  Peter.  It  is  this  peculiarity  of  the  Papal  institution, 
its  historical  and  cosmopolitan  character,  which  prevents  the 
establishment  of  a  modus  vivendi  between  the  Vatican  and 
the  Quirinal.  The  very  moment  that  the  Papacy  would  sur- 
render its  claim  to  the  Patrimonium  Petri,  that  is  to  tem- 
poral sovereignty,  it  would  also  surrender  its  position  as  the 
head  of  a  universal  church  and  its  claim  to  universal  do- 
minion and  accept  as  its  legal  ecclesiastical  and  political 
status  the  Primate  of  the  National  Italian  Church.  Every 
Catholic  nation  would  be  forced  immediately  to  sever  its 
Catholic  clerical  body  from  the  Papacy  and  to  set  up  a 
national  ecclesiastical  establishment.  The  Papacy  would 
therewith  virtually  cease  to  exist. 

As  a  resident  or  citizen  of  the  United  States  the  Pope,  like 
every  other  ordinaiy  mortal,  would  be  subject  to  the  laws 
of  the  land  and  to  those  regulating  the  intercourse  of  na- 
tions. Should  he  continue  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of 
nations,  these  would  be  justified  in  holding  our  government 
responsible  for  any  act  of  his  Holiness  threatening  their 
welfare  or  affecting  their  sovereignty.  For  instance, 
should  the  Pope  instruct  the  faithful  in  any  European 
country  to  oppose  any  measure  of  their  government  or  how 
they  should  vote,  the  United  States  could  justly  be  charged 
with  an  unfriendly  act  of  interference  in  the  internal  affairs 
of  friendly  nations.  There  would  be  no  end  of  trouble  and 
our  government  would  be  forced  either  to  expel  or  punish 


280  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

liis  Holiness  and  risk  a  Catholic  insurrection  or  de  facto 
submit  to  tile  Papal  claim  of  sovereignty  and  risk  a  foreign 
war. 

The  spirit  of  independence  manifest  in  this  country  under 
democratic  institutions  and  their  levelinp^  influences  must 
affect  the  Papacy  as  a  resident  institution  in  a  detrimental 
manner  and  f^radually  but  irresistibly  destroy  its  authority 
in  the  country  of  its  adoption.  Sooner  or  later  the  Catholic 
prelates  would  exert  their  independence.  Then  the  Papacy 
must  either  suffer  reduction  to  its  original  sphere  of  author- 
ity or  accept  the  Primate  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America, 
a  position  which  in  a  democracy  may  be  one  of  great  glory 
and  distinction  but  is  certain  to  be  one  of  little  authority 
and  of  financial  dependence.  Besides,  the  faithful  might 
lose  that  veneration  for  his  Holiness  and  the  Papacy  which 
springs  from  superstition  and  is  sustained  by  distance  and 
seclusion.  Intimacy  breeds  contempt.  Imagine  the  effect 
of  sensational  articles  in  our  newspapers  publishing  to  the 
world  the  scandals  of  the  Papal  Court,  the  corruption  and 
licentiousness  of  its  officers  and  hangers  on,  the  luxury  of 
its  surroundings,  the  riches  squandered  by  the  princes  of 
the  church,  the  irreverence,  debauchery,  and  atheism  of  the 
arm^  of  ecclesiastical  courtiers,  the  mockery  of  Christian 
virtue  and  humility !  All  this  is  well  known  to  the 
Roman  populace  who  loathe  the  Papal  institution  and  the 
Papal  court.  Imagine  the  results  of  the  application  of  the 
standard  of  Anglo-Saxon  morality  to  the  moral  or  rather 
immoral  life  of  the  Papal  Court !  Such  revelations,  and  the 
close  scrutiny  which  our  institutions  permit  would  certainly 
break  the  spell  of  superstition  and  awe  under  which  Paddy 
and  Bridget  and  Binbolo  are  parting  with  their  pennies  for 
the  gratification  of  priestly  licentiousness  and  political 
intrigues.  The  Papal  court  can  exist  only  in  the  seclusion 
of  the  Vatican  or  in  a  Papal  State  governed  in  the  mediaeval 
fashion  and  from  which  the  reporter  and  public  opinion  are 
rigorously  excluded.  Of  course  Leo  XIII  and  his  advisers 
thoroughly  understood  the  conditions  they  would  have  to 
meet  here  as  ordinary  residents  and,  therefore,  they  were 
fully  convinced  of  the  impracticability  of  transporting  the 
Papacy  to  the  United  States  without  first  acquiring  an 
exceptional  status  and  securing  the  conditions  neces- 
sary for  its  medieval  existence.     What  then  are  the  chances 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  281 

that  the  Papacy  may  acquire  such  a  status  and  secure  such 
conditions? 

Certainly,  at  present,  particularly  so  far  as  surface  indica- 
tions may  be  trusted,  these  chances  appear  to  be  very  remote 
and  altogether  barred,  unless  a  fundamental  change  is 
wrought  in  our  political  life.  But  of  all  organic  institutions 
of  the  civilized  world,  the  Papacy,  resting  on  ignorance  and 
superstition,  is  the  one  best  qualified  to  wait  for  the  creation 
of  conditions  favorable  to  its  policy  and  aims.  It  has  twice 
survived  long  periods  of  exile,  it  may  survive  another  such 
catastrophe  and  wait  in  some  corner  of  the  world  until  the 
progress  of  demoralization  and  Romanization  of  the  rapidly 
increasing  heterogeneous  population  of  the  United  States 
creates  the  conditions  necessary  to  its  mediaeval  existence. 
Within  a  few  generations  many  States  now  Protestant  will 
have  become  Catholic.  Canada  and  her  millions  of  French- 
speaking  Catholics  and  parts  or  the  whole  of  Mexico  with 
her  Catholic  Creole  and  Indian  population  may  then  have 
been  annexed.  To  extend  slavery  the  planter  aristocracy 
of  the  South  forced  us  into  a  war  of  conquest  with  Mexico. 
The  Roman  camarilla  demanded  the  annexation  of  the 
Philippines  and  of  Porto  Rico.  The  Romanists  and  their 
auxiliaries  who,  without  positively  joining  the  band  of 
Southern  aristocrats,  encourage  and  assist  it,  though  affect- 
ing to  repudiate  it,  may  force  us  into  another  war  of  con- 
quest to  annex  millions  of  ignorant  Catholic  peons.  When- 
ever the  Southern  States  shall  have  fully  entered  into 
industrialism,  provided  the  present  social  order  continues, 
they  will  again  and  most  likely  permanently  control  the 
National  government  and  directly  and  indirectly  favor  the 
Papal  project. 

If  the  majority  of  the  voters  of  any  State  were  Catholics, 
respectively  Romanists,  they  could  not  only,  so  far  as  any 
bar  in  the  Federal  Constitution  is  concerned,  make  Cathol- 
icism the  established  Church  \\dthin  their  State  but  also 
set  aside  a  Patrimonium  Petri  or  so  change  the  Constitution 
of  their  State  as  to  make  the  Pope  and  the  Roman  theocracy 
their  virtual  rulers.  Should  Canada  join  the  Union — all 
Romanists  favor  her  annexation — such  a  State  would  imme- 
diately be  available  for  the  Papal  scheme.  A  majority  of 
tlie  inhabitants  of  the  province  of  Quebec  are  French-speak- 
ing Canadians  of  the  most  superstitious  character.  Should 
they  decide  to  enter  the  Union  as  a  State,  they  would  do  so 


282  CASSOCK  AND  SWOUD 

witli  a  State  Constitution  wliicli  tlicy  would  frame  and 
which  might  regulate  religious,  educational,  social,  and 
political  matters  {)recisely  as  they  should  see  fit.  Might 
they  not  decide  that  the  Pope  and  the  Koinan  theocracy 
should  be  the  rulers  of  their  commonwealth!  In  a  short 
space  ol"  time  the  iiuijority  of  the  voters  of  some  of  the  New 
England  States  and  perhaps  of  the  State  of  New  York  and 
of  other  States  will  be  Catholics,  French-speaking  Ca- 
nadians, Irish  and  their  descendants,  Creoles  and  Italians. 
Might  they  not  so  change  the  Constitution  of  their  respec- 
tive States  as  to  further  the  Papal  desire  of  finding  a  perma- 
nent lodgment  of  a  sovereign  character  on  American  soil ! 

There  is  another  w^ay  of  providing  the  Papacy  with  a 
Patrimouium  Petri  on  American  soil.  Large  tracts  of 
land  are  either  the  property  of  Indians  or  of  the  nation. 
The  Indian  reservations  are  exempt  from  the  operations  of 
the  Federal  law  and  the  owners  are  invested  with  certain 
sovereign  or  ex-territorial  rights.  So  far  as  any  bar  in  the 
Federal  Constitution  is  concerned,  Congress  might  transfer 
these  rights  to  any  purchaser,  that  is,  Congress  might  ratify 
any  treaty  entered  into  between  a  purchaser  and  the 
Indians.  Should  the  Pope  leave  Rome  voluntarily,  or  be 
expelled  from  the  Vatican  and  the  former  Papal  State,  he 
would  lose  his  sovereign  character  and  thereafter  be  quali- 
fied to  OW'U  real  estate  in  the  United  States.  The  question 
is,  would  Congress  and  the  Executive  legalize  such  a  bar- 
gain? A  Congress  composed  of  the  sort  of  politicians  who 
now  make  up  the  National  legislature  would  certainly  not 
object,  nor  a  President  of  the  antecedents  and  of  the  per- 
sonal and  political  character  of  J\lr.  Roosevelt  or  Taft,  inter- 
pose his  veto.  Where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way.  Provi- 
dentially, we  were  saved  in  the  last  election  from  many  un- 
known evils  which  might  have  emanated  from  another  such 
national  assemblage  with  a  possible  President  of  the  Roose- 
velt or  Taft  stripe  to  match  it. 

Whether  it  would  suit  the  purposes  of  the  Pope  to  have 
the  Papacy  transplanted  in  such  a  maimer  and  to  wait 
patiently  through  a  long  period  for  the  gradual  extension 
and  augmentation  of  its  power  to  attain  the  climax  of 
supreme  authority  in  the  Union  is  another  question.  The 
experiences  the  Papacy  had  during  the  centuries  of  the 
growth  and  decline  of  its  temporal  power  with  the  many 
independent  Italian  States  and  their  warring  interests  and 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  283 

with  the  always  interfering  central  power  of  the  German 
kings  in  their  capacity  as  Roman  emperors  claiming  and 
often  exercising  authority  over  these  States,  do  not  promise 
success  for  these  plans  in  a  union  of  many  political 
units  with  a  central  power,  the  creature  of  the  popular  will 
of  a  majority  of  these  units  or  States.  Before  the  Papacy 
could  effect  a  safe  lodgment,  or  supplant  the  central  power, 
this  power,  or  civil  war,  might  drive  it  from  American  soil. 
A  Patrimanium  Petn  or  Papal  control  of  any  one  State 
Avould  arouse  the  violent  opposition  of  the  Protestant  com- 
munities and  cause  ceaseless  political  agitation  leading  to 
civil  war.  It  would  not  secure  to  the  Papacy  the  means  to 
destroy  in  short  order  the  Protestant  character  of  the  nation 
or  to  control  its  financial  resources  and  its  political  and  mili- 
tary power.  The  political  and  financial  position  of  the 
Papacy  would  be  similar  to  that  held  by  it  while  the  Papal 
State  in  Italy  was  still  in  existence,  that  is,  one  of  doubtful 
tenure  and  of  continued  financial  dependence  on  the  offer- 
ings of  the  faithful  in  other  countries  of  whom  it  no  longer 
could  exact  the  tribute  of  fealty.  In  point  of  fact,  the 
Papacy  would  depend  for  its  independent  existence  on  the 
will  of  a  fickle  populace,  possibly  always  in  their  majority 
either  irreligious  or  of  the  Protestant  faith.  Nevertheless, 
the  creation  of  a  Papal  State  within  the  United  States  in  the 
manner  pointed  out  is  possible,  provided  Romanism  through 
insidious  means  continues  to  grow  as  rapidly  as  it  did  during 
the  last  decades.  Yet,  to  the  careful  student  of  the  new 
Papal  policy  it  appears  more  likely  that  Leo  XIII  aimed  at 
the  direct  control  of  the  financial,  political,  and  military 
power  of  the  United  States  and,  therefore,  at  a  persanal 
union  of  the  Presidency  and  Papacy.  Is  such  a  union 
possible  ? 


CHAPTER  II 

President  and  Pontifex.  Since  the  Papacy  has  been  de- 
prived of  its  temporal  sovereignty,  there  is  no  longer  any 
constitutional  bar  to  tlie  election  of  a  Pope  of  American 
parentage  or  birth  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 
For  instance,  should  Cardinal  Gibbons  be  elected  Pope,  he 
could  also  be  elected  President  of  the  United  States,  That 
is  possible,  though  not  probable,  in  as  much  as  the  candi- 
dacy of  a  Pope  must  for  some  time  to  come  concentrate  the 
Protestant  vote  on  the  rival  candidate.  But  there  is 
another  road  over  which  the  Papacy  might  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  reach  the  White  House. 

Nothing  in  the  constitution  of  the  Catholic  Church  pre- 
vents the  elevation  of  a  President  of  the  United  States  to 
the  Pontificate  provided  he  lives  in  celibacy.  The  law  of 
the  Church  permits  the  election  of  a  laynian  to  the  Pontifi- 
cate and  the  appointment  of  persons  not  in  holy  orders  as 
Cardinals.  Since  the  times  of  Pius  IV,  1559-1565,  there  has 
been  a  law  that  the  Cardinals  should  choose  one  of  their 
number  as  Pope,  and  that  had  been  the  custom  for  two  hun- 
dred years,  ever  since  the  time  of  Boniface  IX,  1399,  This 
law,  however,  has  not  been  enacted  by  an  ecumenical  council 
but  only  by  the  College  of  Cardinals  and  may,  therefore,  be 
repealed  by  this  body  at  any  time  while  sitting  as  an  elec- 
toral college. 

History  tells  us  of  four  Popes  who  were  laymen  at  the 
time  of  their  election  and  were  ordained  afterwards:  St. 
Anterus,  238-239,  John  XII,  who  became  Pope  when  16 
years  old,  Benedict  IX,  who  was  only  10  years  old,  and 
Crescentius,  a  Roman  patrician,  who,  as  John  XIX,  di- 
rected the  affairs  of  the  "Church  of  divine  origin"  from 
1024  to  1028.  So  far  as  legal  obstacles  are  concerned  it 
appears  not  impossible  that  in  time  to  come  a  President 
of  the  United  States  may  be  elected  Pope.  He  would  stand 
in  the  same  relation  to  Church  and  State  as  the  rulers 
of  Russia,  England,  and  Germany.  Though  then  the  relig- 
ious, moral,  and  economic  conditions  were  not  of  a  character 

284 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  285 

adniittiug  such  a  move,  yet  all  other  things,  constitutional 
and  political,  were  favorable  to  such  a  union  years  ago. 
Let  us  examine  into  circumstances  and  their  possibilities. 
Had  David  Bennett  Hill,  Governor  of  New  York,  been  nom- 
inated by  the  Democratic  Convention  at  Chicago  in  1892, 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  been  elected.  Politically  our 
people  act  often  without  forethought  and  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  and  then  elections  are  decided  on  issues  of 
only  momentary  importance  and  little  weight,  or  by  the 
fancies  or  temporary  economic  necessities  of  the  masses; 
facts  which  entered  largely  into  the  calculations  of  Leo 
XIII.  We  should  then  have  had  in  the  Presidential  office 
a  bachelor  and  a  tool  of  Rome,  who  either  had  already 
embraced  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  or  might  have  done  so 
at  any  moment,  always  provided,  that  we  draw  the  proper 
conclusions  from  his  mental  and  moral  qualities  and  from 
his  personal  and  political  antecedents.  In  a  majority  of 
the  States  of  the  Union  the  pro-Roman  Democratic  party 
was  then  in  power.  The  Senate  consisted  of  Romanists, 
corruptionists,  and  plutocrats,  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  a  miscellaneous  rabble  of  mediocre,  greedy,  and  corrupt 
politicians.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  repre- 
sented, as  it  did  for  two  generations,  the  moneyed  power  in 
this  country  and  Europe.  In  the  most  important  cities  the 
Irish  rabble  and  the  criminal  classes,  to  whom  Hill  had 
always  catered  politically,  were  dominant. 

As  there  are  always  vacancies  in  the  College  of  Cardinals 
Mr.  Hill  could  have  been  appointed  a  member  thereof. 
History  shows  that  Popes  often  die  at  the  most  opportune 
moment.  Leo  XIII,  a  very  old  man,  might  have  resigned 
in  order  not  to  lose  the  opportunity  to  realize  the  fruits  and 
dreams  of  his  Pontificate.  Then  Hill  could  have  been 
elected  Pope  and  placed  in  holy  orders.  He  would  then 
have  been  legally  elected  President  of  the  United  States  and 
the  legally  elected  head  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  aston- 
ishment and  furor  of  Protestant  America  he  might  coolly 
have  met  with  the  phrase,  made  historical  by  Tweed  of  Tam- 
many fame  when  he  was  charged  with  the  theft  of  twenty 
millions:     "What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" 

Open  opposition  to  the  Pope-President  would  have  been 
insurrection.  Renominated  by  the  Democratic  party  with 
the  assistance  of  our  Ultramontane  party  he  would  have 
manipulated   the    Presidential    election    of   1896    in    that 


286  CASSOCK  A\D  SWORD 

peculiar  niannor  of  his  whicli  jjlaced  him  repeatedly  in  the 
liovernor's  chair  of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  man  who 
inanilnilated  tiic  theft  of  a  Stat<3  was  fully  (jualitied  to 
steal  tlie  l^residcncy.  Besides  he  had  a  case  of  precedence 
to  fall  hack  upon :  the  Presidential  muddle  of  1876.  Fraud 
of  any  kind  bears  evil  fruit.  Before  long  the  theft  of  the 
Presidency  in  1876  may  bear  such  fruit.  Had  the  Protes- 
t<ants  risen  in  in.surrection,  Hill  would  have  had  the  advan- 
tage of  having  the  law  on  his  side,  of  commanding  the  army, 
navy,  and  militia.  Thousands  of  officei-s  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  the  file  ai'e  Komanists.  Most  likely  the  entire  South 
would  have  supported  him.  He  would  have  been  in  posses- 
sion of  the  great  nuirts  of  the  country,  of  its  financial  and 
industrial  centers,  of  New  York,  Boston,  Chicago,  New 
Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  with  their  so-called  underground  pop- 
ulation, always  ready  to  support  any  political  rascal  and 
any  cause  that  promises  booty  and  the  suppression  of  the 
orderly  and  prosperous  elements  of  society.  The  arsenals, 
forts,  navy  yards,  and  military  depots  would  have  been  at 
his  disposal,  also  the  immense  riches  of  the  Catholic  estab- 
lishment in  this  country,  of  its  plutocracy  and  moneyed 
power,  and  the  fighting  material  of  the  ten  millions  of  Irish 
already  organized  in  parishes  and  their  secret,  often  mil- 
itary, societies.  In  the  course  of  time  the  Constitution 
might  have  been  changed  as  to  the  mode  of  election  and 
term  of  office  of  the  President  to  secure  a  life  tenure  and  the 
permanent  union  of  this  office  and  that  of  the  Papacy. 
Protestantism  might  have  prevailed  at  the  close  of  a  terrible 
civil  war  which  would  have  devastated  the  country  and  de- 
stroyed millions  of  lives  and  millions  in  treasure.  Protest- 
antism might  have  prevailed — the  experience  of  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  shows  clearly  the  advantages  which  in  such 
a  struggle  Romanism  would  have  enjoyed.  What  would 
have  been  the  result  of  the  great  Southern  conspiracy  had 
the  South  controlled  at  the  outset  and  during  the  war  the 
financial  and  economic  resources  of  the  country,  the  army 
and  na\y,  all  the  arsenals,  fortifications,  navy  yards,  and 
depots  in  the  North,  the  moneyed  power,  and  above  all 
things  the  centers  of  trade  and  industry,  at  the  same  time 
representing  the  legitimate  government  of  the  United 
States?  In  1861  the  Northern  people  were  a  compact  body 
of  Protestants  moved  by  the  spirit  of  democracy,  untainted 
by  corruption  and  untouched  by  the  evils  flowing  from 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  287 

industrial  fendalismy  Nevertheless,  this  splendid  social 
and  political  body,  uneqnaled  in  the  annals  of  history,  was 
suddenly  overwhelmed  by  the  Southern  conspiracy. 
Gigrantie  efforts  and  immense  sacrifices  in  blood  and  treasure 
saved  it  from  annihilation.  Then  only  the  few  had  a 
foreboding:  of  the  approaching  calamity,  only  the  few  tried 
to  arouse  the  Northern  people  from  lethargy  that  they 
might  prepare  for  the  political  whirlwind  and  an  irrepres- 
sible contiiet,  but  the  warnings  of  the  prophets  of  evil  were 
lost  in  the  turmoil  of  every  day  life  and  in  the  clatter  and 
*'halali"  of  the  mad  chase  after  the  almighty  dollar. 
Shall  history  repeat  itself? 

In  the  age  of  science  and  rapid  progress  events  march 
with  giant  strides.  After  the  first  election  of  Lincoln  few 
thought  that  his  administration  would  be  marked  by  the 
most  dramatic  war  in  history  and  his  martyrdom.  Few 
only  gave  serious  thought  to  the  Southern  conspiracy;  the 
vast  majority  held  it  to  be  the  vaporing  expression  of 
Southern  bravado.  ITow  many  of  us  were  then  able  to  com- 
prehend the  possibility  of  the  emancipation  of  five  millions 
of  slaves  and  of  their  enfranchisement,  of  gi'cat  armies 
battling  for  the  mastership  on  our  soil,  of  millions  of  graves 
and  widows  and  orphans !  Who  thought  that  within  a  few 
years  of  Lincoln's  election  a  negro,  born  a  slave,  could  be 
elected  a  Senator  of  the  United  States!  Who  ever  had 
thought  of  a  Confederacy,  of  a  rival  President  within  the 
territory  of  the  republic,  of  the  desertion  of  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy,  of  a  treacherous  cabinet,  of  the  seizure  of 
forts,  navy  yards  and  ships!  A  Pope  in  the  Presidential 
chair  is  no  less  a  possibility  than  has  been  the  President  of 
the  Confederacy,  the  embodiment  of  all  the  anti-social  forces 
of  that  day. 

In  the  life  of  nations  the  unexpected  is  always  that  which 
is  the  logical  effect  of  often  very  remote,  though  daily  oper- 
ating and  augmenting  causes  which  we  constantly  encoun- 
ter in  the  ordinary  routine  of  life  and  in  every  walk  thereof. 
The  trouble  is,  that  their  very  ubiquity  and  continuity 
dull  our  senses  and  thus  prevent  our  taking  notice,  that  they 
are  constantly  operating  to  produce  their  logical  and  inevit- 
able result.  The  history  of  the  Romish  Church  in  the 
United  States  should  give  us  ample  warning  of  a  rapidly 
approaching  danger.  From  the  consecration  of  the  first 
bishop  in  Baltimore  to  the  arrival  of  the  Deputy-Pope,  Mgr. 


288  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Satolli,  only  a  century  lias  elapsed.  The  first  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  the  State  of  New  York,  held  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  disfranchised  the  Ro- 
manists. But  for  the  economic  and  financial  crisis  which 
overtook  our  people  in  1893  and  suddenly  clianged  the  drift 
of  public  opinion  and  reversed  the  position  of  the  Republi- 
can and  Democratic  parties,  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  the  same  State  held  in  1894  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  a  Papist  body  moved  by  the  single  purpose  of  making 
the  Empire  State  of  the  Union  de  facto  if  not  de  jure  a 
dependency  of  the  Papacy. 

It  is  true,  that  since  then  the  results  of  the  elections  have 
for  the  time  being  somewhat  disconcerted  the  plans  of  the 
Romanists,  yet  their  power  and  riches  have  not  been  im- 
paired but  increased  and  the  loyalty  and  standing  of  their 
secret  allies  in  the  ranks  of  all  parties  have  not  been  ques- 
tioned or  assailed.  Unfortunately  these  secret  allies  of 
Rome,  prominent  and  most  influential  leaders  in  every 
party,  are  able  to  protect  the  true  sources  of  such  power 
and  wealth,  as  they  did  in  the  last  Constitutional  Convention 
of  New  York.  Their  subserviency  to  the  moneyed  power 
places  them  in  the  bonds  and  shackles  of  Rome.  To  ser\'e 
well  their  masters,  the  plutocracy,  the  trusts  and  corpora- 
tions, they  must  serve  Rome  and  further  her  designs  on  the 
liberty  of  the  American  people.  While  the  late  elections 
indicate  that  the  masses  of  the  American  people  are 
naturally  impelled  towards  the  goal  of  democracy,  yet  their 
action  is  rather  due  to  an  unreasoning  prompting  than  to 
a  distinct  apprehension  of  the  end  or  object  to  be  accom- 
plished. The  masses  were  then,  are  now,  and  in  the  nearest 
future  will  be  without  a  leadership  of  sufficient  intellectual 
and  ethical  capacity  to  guide  them  safely  and  directly  to 
their  specific  goal.  The  lack  of  such  leadership  is  the  ban 
of  the  American  democracy  and  the  opportunity  of  Rome. 
But  to  the  calm,  dispassionate,  sympathetic  judgment  of  a 
race  of  Teutonic  origin  and  of  the  Protestant  faith  and 
which,  moreover,  is  not  afraid  of  facing  great  changes  and 
responsibilities,  there  has,  as  yet,  been  no  intelligent  and 
pointed  appeal. 

The  Protestant  community  of  the  United  States  should 
always  remember  that  in  all  elections  the  Romish  Church 
was  able  to  hold  its  own ;  that  it  was  able  to  face  the  storm 
of  popular  indignation  with  unbroken  ranks.     In  the  City 


FROM  ROME  TO  WASHINGTON  289 

of  New  York  the  Church  was  able  to  defend  its  cause  and 
that  of  its  representative  political  organization,  thieving, 
scoundrelly  Tammany  Hall.  After  all  the  horrible  dis- 
closures before  the  Lexow  and  other  Committees,  of  Tam- 
many's unspeakable  depravity,  fostering  vice  for  its 
usufruct,  the  Romish  priests  instructed  the  faithful  to  sus- 
tain the  rascally  gang  at  the  polls. 

For  centuries  removed  from  all  religious  strifes,  the 
American  people  had  almost  forgotten  Rome's  persecutions 
of  our  race,  which  were  the  original  cause  of  our  political 
and  national  existence.  Almost  faded  from  the  memory  of 
our  people,  these  facts  gradually  lost  their  effect  on  its  polit- 
ical reasoning.  Therefore,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that 
until  now  the  Roman  Church  has  been  on  trial  in  America. 
Professing  to  adapt  itself  to  American  principles  and  habits, 
a  liberal  minded  public  permitted  it  to  gain  a  foothold  and 
gave  it  aid  and  support.  The  very  moment  that  the  Roman- 
ists thouglit  their  strength  sufficient  to  defy  public  opinion, 
they  adopted  an  aggressive  policy  and  interfered  with  our 
educational  institutions  and  elections.  Instead  of  adapt- 
ing itself  to  American  principles  and  habits,  the  Romish 
Church  attempts  to  coerce  the  people,  as  it  has  planted  on 
our  soil  the  institutions  of  another  race  and  civilization. 
The  Romish  Church  has  the  impudence  to  demand  the  sub- 
mission of  more  than  sixty  million  Americans,  who,  being 
divided  into  all  sorts  of  religious  associations,  and  some  hav- 
ing no  religious  position  at  all,  should  be  united  in  their 
determination  tliat  no  religious  body  shall  ever  control 
the  educational  and  political  institutions  of  this  country. 
Unfortunately,  for  reasons  already  mentioned,  they  are,  as 
yet,  not  fully  aroused  to  the  true  position  the  Roman 
Church  maintains  in  its  relation  to  the  American  nation,  a 
position  which  does  not  permit  either  side  to  yield  through 
compromise.  There  must,  therefore,  be  a  fight  to  the  finish. 
It  is  either  Papal  rule,  spiritually  and  temporally,  or  the 
expulsion  of  the  Papists. 

According  to  the  Papal  doctrine,  God  and  his  eternal  law 
and,  therefore,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  wliich  alone  is 
declared  the  Church  of  God  and  His  instrument  on  earth, 
hold  first  claims  upon  conscience.  Allegiance  to  country 
is  therefore  limited  by  allegiance  to  God  and  to  the  Church. 
A  country  which  enacts  the  violation  of  those  laws,  that  is 
which  does  not  recognize  the  Church  as  the  only  ruler  of  the 


290  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

conscionce,  becomes  an  aggregation  of  human  wills,  which 
physical  force  alone  sustains,  and  thus  annuls  its  own  moral 
authority.  In  other  words,  everj'  government  which  does 
not  recognize  the  spiritual  and  temporal  supreme  authority 
of  the  Koman  Catholic  Church  is  outlawed  from  the  stand- 
point of  Home,  and  she  is  justified,  aye,  commanded  by  God 
to  destroy  such  government  and  to  assume  its  functions. 
Therefore,  the  government  of  the  United  States  being 
such  an  aggregation  of  human  Mills,  it  must  be  supplanted 
by  the  Papacy.     Such  is  Roman  logic ! 


PART  XI 
THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES 

CHAPTER  I 
Roman  Diplomacy,  Cunning,  Insolence,  and  Duplicity 

section  i 

The  National  Constitution  and  Catholic  Congresses. 
At  a  time  when  faith  in  the  supernatural  is  losing  its  hold 
through  dangerous  questioning,  Pope  Leo  XIII  had  commis- 
sioned an  Apostolic  delegate,  Mgr.  Satolli,  papal  courtier 
and  Archbishop  "in  partibus"  of  Lepanto,  to  exercise  con- 
trol of  the  Catholic  Church  in  this  country  and  to  confer 
some  of  the  blessings  of  Papal  absolutism  on  a  people,  who 
rebelled  against  the  doctrine  of  ruling  by  "divine  right," 
V.  ho  fought  for  seven  years  for  the  right  of  self-government, 
w  ho  were  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  life  and  treasure  to  destroy 
human  bondage  of  any  kind,  and  who  rapidly  maturing 
spiritually  and  politically,  will  soon  be  fitted  for  the  apostle- 
ship  of  the  humane. 

The  authority  of  Mgr.  Satolli  and  of  his  successors  was 
not  clearly  defined  at  the  outset ;  but  it  is  now  understood 
to  be  the  direct  representation  of  the  Pope,  summary 
ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  highest  order.  Properly  to 
designate  the  powers  of  the  Papal  Legates  in  legal  language, 
it  may  be  stated,  that  they  have  a  general  power  of  attorney 
from  the  Pope  to  do  anywhere  and  everywhere  that  which 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  could  do,  if  personally  present,  and 
their  acts  are  ratified  in  advance.  Hence  they  may  be 
called  the  Deputy-Popes.  According  to  advices  from  Rome, 
the  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda  had  gathered  the 
opinion  of  the  religious  orders  in  America  as  to  the  advis- 
ability of  a  permanent  delegation  in  our  country.  These 
opinions,  it  is  said,  greatly  favored  such  an  establishment 
and  also  the  calling  of  another  National  Synod  of  the 
American   hierarchy   and   the   appointment  of   Cathedral 

291 


292  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

Charters  for  the  better  exercise  of  the  sovereign  power  of 
the  Pontiff  in  our  republic;  that  is  for  the  establislunent 
of  a  well  ordered  independent  State.  It  is  further  said, 
tliat  to  this  purpose  the  Deputy  Pope  has  been  appointed 
Legate  a  latere,  the  most  exalted  rank  to  which  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Holy  Father  can  attain.  Furthermore,  the 
Church  in  the  United  States  has  been  taken  wholly  out 
of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Propaganda  and  placed  under 
the  personal  control  of  the  Deputy.  He  will  therefore  ex- 
ercise the  sovereign  powers  and  control,  ecclesiastical  and 
temporal,  which  the  Pontifex  Maximus  claims  to  exercise 
over  the  spiritual,  social  and  political  life  of  the  peoples  of 
the  earth.  The  Deputy's  mission  may  be  compared  to  that 
of  Cardinal  Paparo  to  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  century, 
whence  her  misfortunes  date. 

Mgr.  SatoUi  himself  has  thus  defined  this  mission.  In 
an  address  delivered  in  Washington  on  Thanksgiving  day, 
1893,  before  the  students  of  a  Catholic  College,  an  occasion 
adroitly  used  to  set  his  policy  before  the  American  people, 
the  Papal  vice-regent  or  Proconsul  said: 

"I  will  say  that  whoever  seriously  meditates  on  the 
principles  of  the  American  Constitution,  whoever  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  present;  conditions  of  the  American 
Republic,  should  be  persuaded  and  agree  with  us  that  the 
action  of  Catholic  faith  and  morality  is  favorable  in  every 
way  to  the  direction  in  which  the  Constitution  turns.  For 
the  more  public  opinion  and  the  Government  favor  the 
Catholic  schools,  more  and  more  will  the  welfare  of  the 
Commonwealth  be  advanced.  The  Catholic  education  is 
the  surest  safeguard  of  the  permanence  throughout  the 
centuries  of  the  Constitution  and  the  best  guide  of  the 
Republic  in  civil  progress.  From  this  source  the  Con- 
stitution will  gather  that  assimilation  so  necessary  for  the 
perfect  organization  of  that  progressive  body  which  is  the 
American  Republic. 

"That  is  the  sincere  expression  of  conviction  and  so  to 
speak  the  profession  of  my  faith  in  this  matter.  Up  to 
the  present  it  has  been  inexplicable  to  me  and  never  perhaps 
shall  I  find  out  what  was  the  origin  of  the  suspicion  that 
my  views  were  not  favorable  to  Catholic  schools.  Those 
who  at  first  or  ever  after  have  attributed  to  me  such  an 
absurd  opinion  ought  to  point  to  some  word  or  action  of 
mine  to  justify  themselves.     Had  I  spoken  differently,  I 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  293 

should  he  unfaithful  to  my  mission,  and  moreover  I  should 
liave  given  the  lie  to  my  fii*st  and  unchangeable  convictions. 
Every  Catholic  school  is  a  safe  guardian  of  youth,  and  it 
is  at  the  same  time  for  the  American  youth  a  place  of 
training  where  they  are  brought  up  for  the  advantage  of 
Church  and  country, 

"Grant  heaven  that  the  Catholic  schools  may  continue, 
increase  in  number,  grow  stronger,  reach  the  highest  perfec- 
tion, endowed  with  the  blessings  of  God,  commanded  by  the 
authority  of  the  Church  and  the  Holy  Father,  honored  and 
appreciated  by  every  honest  citizen,  from  the  illustrious 
President  down  to  the  most  humble  workman.  Those  only 
are  against  them  who  do  not  know  them  or  who  are  not 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  Church  and  are  wanting  the 
sentiments  of  true  liberty." 

The  logic  of  this  is,  that  if  the  American  people  and  the 
American  government  will  not  sustain  and  uphold  the 
Roman  Catholic  schools,  the  surest  safeguard  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  of  the  Republic  will  be  withdrawn.  Thus,  if 
the  Papacy  cannot  rule  the  Republic  and  coerce  it,  it  will 
oppose  and,  so  far  as  it  can,  ruin  the  Republic.  The  agita- 
tion on  the  school  question  on  the  part  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  based  on  the  fact  that  the  people  cannot 
be  held  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  unless  the  distinctive 
teachings  of  that  Church  are  inculcated  in  early  youth. 
Therefore,  the  Church  must  either  destroy  our  system  of 
public  education  and  to  do  this  must  acquire  the  political 
mastery  over  the  Republic,  or  it  must,  dropping  its  ambi- 
tious designs,  destroy  the  Republic.  To  accomplish  the  one 
or  the  other  is  the  mission  of  the  Deputy  Popes. 

To  acquire  the  political  mastery  it  is  necessary  to  or- 
ganize a  Catholic  Party  like  the  clerical  party  in  the 
Reichstag  in  Germany  or  the  Irish  party  in  the  English 
Parliament.  Here  again  we  have  ]\Igr.  Satolli's  own  state- 
ment as  to  such  a  purpose.  In  a  letter,  dated  September 
4,  1894,  and  addressed  to  the  Congress  of  the  German 
Roman  Catholic  Union  of  the  United  States,  then  meeting 
in  New  York  City,  Mgr.  Satolli  says: 

' '  During  this  centuiy  the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church 
have  tried  every  manner  of  means  to  destroy  these  institu- 
tions (of  the  monastic  life),  and  they  have  done  nothing 
but  heap  up  ruins,  and  according  to  the  new  times  she  soon 
created    also    new    forms    of    Catholic    associations.     The 


294  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

euemies  of  the  Chiircli  wanted  the  secularization  of  Catholi- 
cism, and  the  Catholics  have  answered  by  the  Catholic 
congresses.  Tiie  history  of  Germany  shall  have  golden 
pa^es  to  record  the  institution  and  the  advantages  of  the 
Catholic  congresses,  from  which  sprang  the  Catholic  center, 
the  body  which  was  the  primary  cause  of  the  collapse,  more 
or  less  complete,  of  the  sadly  famous  Kulturkampf, 

"The  character  of  the  Catholic  congresses  requires  that 
they  should  hamonize  with  the  spirit  of  the  Church,  and 
they  prove  vcrxi  useful  whenever,  being  celebrated  under 
the  patronage  of  the  ecclesiastic  authorities,  such  resolu- 
tions are  adopted  by  them  as  are  required  by  the  interests 
of  the  Catholic  faith  and  the  conditions  of  social  life. 

"Certainly  the  usefulness  and  necessity  of  such  societies 
and  Conventions  can  easily  be  proved  by  the  salutary  effects 
already  accomplished  through  them." 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  astute  Romish  priest  and 
Italian  statesman  has  found  it  so  difficult  to  understand 
how  the  suspicion  originated  that  his  views  were  not  favor- 
able to  Catholic  schools.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mgr. 
Satolli  was  made  the  victim  of  a  Jesuitical  trick,  to  gull 
the  American  public  into  the  belief  that  the  widely  adver- 
tised new  policy  of  his  Holiness,  of  which  ]\Igr.  Satolli  was 
the  bearer,  was  one  of  liberalism  and  in  favor  of  specific 
American  institutions.  Nevertheless,  the  trick  served  well 
the  purposes  of  the  Monsiguor.  It  allayed  the  suspicions 
of  the  American  people  as  to  his  mission.  Speculating  on 
our  gullibility,  on  our  provincial  pride  and  prejudices,  and 
on  our  want  of  knowledge  of  Romish  diplomacy,  cunning, 
and  duplicity,  IMgr.  Satolli  was  enabled  to  have  a  house- 
warming  instead  of  being  turned  back  and  at  once  from  our 
shores.  Had  the  immense  majority  of  the  American  people 
suspected  the  real  character  of  his  mission  and  the  purport 
of  his  secret  instructions,  had  they  suspected  that  in  his 
person  we  are  to  have  an  American  Pope  in  fact  or  in 
effect,  they  never  Avould  have  permitted  IMgr.  Satolli  to 
pose  as  a  sovereign  prince  and  a  general  meddler  with 
affairs,  and  to  assume  an  aggressive  and,  therefore,  offensive 
position. 

The  Americans  are,  as  yet,  not  at  all  anxious  to  be  adopted 
by  the  Pontiff  since  their  energetic  life  and  their  strength 
makes  them  totally  independent,  and  they  are  sufficiently 
matured  in  ethics  and  politics  to  get  along  without  Papal 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  295 

fostering  care,  without  Papal  Punic  love  for  the  United 
States  and  for  their  Constitution.  The  late  Bishop  Cox  in 
a  public  letter  addressed  to  Mgr.  Satolli  expresses  genuine 
American  sentiment  in  saying  "Strong  nations  are 
naturally  self-reliant.  Under  God,  it  is  their  inalienable 
right  to  be  so.  To  prefer  the  paternal  care  of  any  foreign 
court  to  such  a  nation  is  an  impertinence,  Spain  accepted 
it  when  she  was  miglity,  and  has  enjoyed  the  full  benefit 
of  such  nursing  for  centuries.  If  you  ask  for  the  results, 
look  at  her.  You  profess  to  admire  our  institutions.  Re- 
flect that  our  fundamental  institution  is  the  right  of  self- 
government.  For  centuries  France  has  maintained  bars 
and  bolts  to  keep  out  just  such  visitors  as  you." 

The  American  people  are  the  sovereigns  of  the  State,  and 
will  brook  no  interference  with  their  sovereignty  by 
plutocracy  or  ecclesiastical  rulers.  That  is  the  unalterable 
American  principle.  They  do  not  want  the  blessings  or 
missions  of  the  Pontiff,  or  his  love,  or  his  system  that  has 
laid  waste  the  fairest  gardens  of  Europe  and  by  its  touch 
blighted  every  land  of  promise. 

Mgr.  Satolli  spoke  of  "the  authority  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  Holy  Father,  honored  and  appreciated  by  every 
honest  citizen  of  the  United  States."  Now,  where  is  this 
authority  mentioned  in  the  Constitution,  or  when  and  where 
have  the  American  people  conferred  it  upon  the  Holy 
Father,  or  recognized  it,  or  submitted  to  it?  Wliy  should 
the  sixty  millions  of  Protestants  in  this  country  honor  the 
Holy  Father  who  at  certain  rites  annually  performed  by  him 
curses  all  heretics,  ourselves  included,  and  calls  upon  the 
God  of  love,  justice,  and  mercy  to  exterminate  them  and  to 
hurl  them  into  eternal  death!  Our  Capitalist  rulers  and 
political  bosses  may  honor  the  Holy  Father  as  a  political 
ally  and  protector,  but  it  is  beyond  our  comprehension, 
why  the  most  humble  workman  of  Protestant  faith  or 
sufficiently  enlightened  to  know  his  cause,  should  honor 
the  head  of  a  Church  that  has  always  supported  class  rule 
and  to-day,  through  his  Deputy  offers  his  services  quid  pro 
quo  to  Capitalism  and  our  rotten  lawmakers  for  the  lasting 
enslavement  of  American  labor. 

As  a  priest  of  a  theocratic  church  that  has  ever  sup- 
pressed every  thought  and  action  of  a  progressive  nature, 
that  has  sanctioned  the  Inquisition  and  the  Autos-da-fe, 
that  has  imprisoned,  tortured  and  executed  the  most  noble 


296  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

of  mankind  for  their  endeavor  to  elevate  mankind,  this 
Italian  has  the  impudenee  to  charge  sixty  millions  of 
Protestant  Americans  with  "wanting  the  sentiments  of 
true  liberty."  This  n'i)resentative  of  a  system  that  has 
kept  the  masses  of  Christendom  in  ignorance  and  economic 
slavery  and  in  his  own  country  at  tiie  lowest  stage  of 
civilization,  and  that  allied  itself  with  bandits  to  sustain 
Bourbonism  and  despotism,  thus  traduces  a  people  who  have 
sacriticed  millions  of  lives  and  millions  in  treasure  on  the 
altar  of  humanity,  setting  an  example  to  all  mankind  in 
their  aspirations  for  freedom  and  civic  virtue,  who  freed 
millions  of  slaves  and  proclaimed  freedom  of  conscience 
and  the  equality  of  man  when  all  Christendom  was  in 
spiritual  and  political  bondage.  The  lone  fact,  that  the 
Deputy  Pope,  the  bearer  of  the  Pandora  box  containing  all 
the  ills  which  the  Roman  Church  has  ever  spread  over 
Christendom,  still  walks  unmolested  on  American  soil,  ia 
conclusive  proof  that  "the  American  people  are  not  wanting 
the  sentiments  of  true  liberty"  hut  are  wanting,  and  badly 
too,  the  sentiment  of  properly  dealing  with  the  Roman 
Church  and  such  slanderers  as  her  representatives  are. 
They  may  acquire  it,  though  !  Thank  God,  that  the  Ameri- 
can people  are,  as  yet,  not  animated  by  the  spirit  of  that 
Church,  of  which  Goethe  says:  "that  spirit  that  always 
wills  the  evil," 

"The  present  condition  of  the  American  Republic  and 
the  direction  in  which  the  Constitution  turns"  are  to  the 
Deputy  Popes  seemingly  matters  of  high  concern.  We 
ought  to  be  profoundly  thankful  to  the  Holy  Father  and 
to  these  Deputy  Popes  that  they  kindly  interest  themselves 
in  matters  which,  until  now,  were  thought  to  be  the  exclusive 
province  of  the  political  action  of  the  American  people. 
True,  the  present  condition  of  the  Republic  is  not  at  all 
satisfactory  to  a  majority  of  our  people.  Whenever  the 
American  people  are  fully  aroused  to  the  necessity  of  a 
change  in  said  condition,  they  will  insist  on  it  in  a  manner 
of  their  own,  though  hardly  satisfactory  to  the  Popes  or 
to  the  parties  responsible  for  the  present  condition.  Ap- 
pearances indicate  that  the  people  have  of  late  determined 
on  such  a  change.  Without  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
seat  of  the  evil,  of  its  extent,  and  of  its  true  causes  they 
have  experimented  in  various  directions,  for  instance,  when 
through  the  last  election  they  decided  to  resent  every  inter- 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  297 

ference  of  the  Roman  Church  in  their  affairs,  to  hurl  its 
serfs,  the  Irish,  from  power,  and  to  block  the  path  over 
which  McKinley,  Roosevelt  and  Taft  and  their  Jesuit  mas- 
ters had  made  their  way  to  the  White  House. 

As  to  "the  direction  in  which  the  Constitution  turns," 
the  American  people  are  beginning  to  understand  Satolli's 
conception  of  things  and  also  the  phrase  "Catholic  faith  and 
morality  is  favorable  in  every  way  to  said  direction." 
What  he  thought  is  this :  the  Constitution  favors  the  growth 
of  Capitalism  and  Plutocratic  rule  and  can  and  will  be 
used  for  the  political  and  economic  enslavement  of  the 
masses  and  for  the  aggrandizement  of  plutocracy.  Catholic 
faith  keeps  the  masses  in  ignorance  and  therefore  in  servi- 
tude. Catholic  discipline  does  not  contemplate  excom- 
munication for  violation  of  the  moral  code,  but  only  for 
lapse  from  the  faith  and  refusal  to  obey  ecclesiastical  direc- 
tions, therefore.  Catholic  morality  sanctions  political  cor- 
ruption whenever  the  church  profits  thereby,  the  despoil- 
ment of  the  masses  and  their  economic  and  political  en- 
slavement whenever  it  is  to  the  advantage  of  theocratic 
ambition.  The  Deputy  Popes  offer  an  alliance  offensive 
and  defensive  to  plutocracy  and  to  our  reactionary  elements 
generally,  the  quid  pro  quo  being  that  the  authority  of 
the  Pontiff  should  be  recognized  and  the  church  participate 
in  the  profits.  "Addition,  division,  and  silence"  has  been 
the  motto  of  our  despoilers  and  of  the  Catholic  Irish  politi- 
cians. The  Deputy  Pope  wants  to  enlarge  its  sphere  and 
make  the  motto  of  the  United  States  "Addition,  division 
and  Popery."  Whenever  the  American  people  shall  be 
convinced  of  the  defective  or  reactionary  nature  of  the 
Constitution,  on  which  he  relies  in  the  execution  of  his 
evil  design  on  their  liberty,  they  will  insist  on  radical 
changes  or  abolish  it,  and  then  it  may  happen  that  they 
will  bury  his  system,  the  medieval  system  of  economics, 
and  the  Constitution  in  a  common  grave.  They  may  hoist 
another  Liberty  flag  inscribed  on  one  side  "No  Popery" 
and  on  the  other  ' '  No  Plutocracy. ' ' 

]Mr.  Satolli's  implied  threats  to  ruin  the  Republic  if 
the  demands  of  the  Roman  hierarchy  are  not  complied 
with,  can  only  mean  that  they  will  invite  open  insurrection 
and  enlist  therein  the  turbulent  and  destructive  elements 
which  their  Church  controls  and  for  whose  action  it  may 
be  justly  held  responsible.     The  history  of  the  War  of  the 


298  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

Rebellion,  of  the  July  riots  iu  New  York  and  Boston  in 
186;^  and  of  the  June  riot  in  New  York  in  1871  ought  to 
teach  him  that  the  American  people  know  perfectly  well 
how  to  deal  with  "the  powerful  conservative  forces"  as 
]\Ir.  Satolli  chose  at  another  occasion  to  call  these  turbulent 
and  reactionary  elements  of  our  population.  Or,  if  it 
should  be  the  intention  of  the  hierarchy  to  unleash  the 
diabolic  spirits  of  anarchy  and  to  intimidate  society  by 
dynamite  and  assassination  as  was  done  by  the  Roman 
Church  in  France,  Spain  and  Italy  where  it  partly  succeeded 
in  bending  society  and  governments  to  nearly  Jesuitical 
purposes,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  attempt  would  fail, 
as  it  must  fail  in  England  and  Germany.  Such  an  attempt 
on  the  moral  and  political  life  of  the  Teutonic  nations 
would  rouse  the  furor  Teutonicus  with  the  result  that 
Anarchism  and  the  agencies  employing  it  would  be  com- 
pletely overwhelmed  and  buried  in  eternal  oblivion. 

SECTION   II 

A  Voice  from  Rome.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
religious  education  in  the  Roman  Catholic  parochial  schools 
is  a  conservative  force  in  society  as  now  constituted. 
The  Roman  Church  is  arrayed  against  all  social  agitation 
which  seeks  to  disrupt  society  and  demolish  its  safeguards. 
But  it  is  for  the  American  people  to  say  whether  society, 
as  it  now  exists,  in  its  mediaeval  form  and  with  its  many 
shortcomings,  is  and  shall  remain  their  ideal,  or  whether 
they  want  it  changed  in  form  and  essence,  so  that  the  Ameri- 
can nation  may  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  philosophical 
thought  and  of  science,  of  Christian  faith,  hope,  and  charity, 
and  hence  profit  from  the  economic  and  material  evolution 
of  the  age. 

The  warrant  for  the  meddling  of  bishops  and  priests  in 
our  affairs  they  hold  to  be  the  right  of  anybody  coming 
here  to  instruct  people  in  their  religious  duties.  They 
say,  if  the  English  king  were  the  head  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  here,  there  would  be  nothing  impertinent  in  his 
sending  over  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  tell  the 
American  Episcopalians  how  under  the  obligations  of  their 
religion,  they  must  vote  or  what  must  be  their  attitude 
towards  the  public  schools.  He  would,  so  they  contend, 
simply  be  following  our  example  in  sending  Bishops  and 
other  missionaries  to  tell  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese,  the 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  299 

Indians,  and  the  IMohammedans  what  they  ought  to  do  for 
the  elevation  of  their  souls. 

But  in  the  first  place,  our  Bishops  and  missionaries  do 
not  represent  a  Church  with  a  head  claiming  infallibility 
and  universal  dominion,  ecclesiastical  and  temporal.  In 
the  second  place,  in  the  countries  visited  by  our  missionaries 
there  are  not  millions  of  their  own  faith  and  race  exercising 
sovereign  rights.  In  the  third  place,  the  governments  of 
countries  in  which  these  missionaries  labor  have  always 
jealously  restricted  them  to  their  legitimate  sphere.  When- 
ever they  meddled  with  public  affairs,  the  governments 
exercised  their  sovereignty  by  expelling  the  offenders 
against  international  comity  and  the  ethics  of  their  holy 
calling;  political  and  sovereign  acts  which  have  always 
been  recognized  by  our  government  as  within  the  province 
of  the  police  power  of  the  most  savage  government  and 
Anthin  the  scope  of  international  law.  It  perplexes  the 
student  of  history  and  the  American  mind  that  the  Roman 
partisans  choose  the  hypothetical  authority  of  the  English 
king  as  a  point  of  comparison  with  the  character  of  the 
spiritual  mission  of  the  Deputy  Popes  if  we  admit  it  to 
be  such  only.  The  American  people  have  definitely  settled 
this  very  point  a  century  ago  when  they  rebelled  against 
the  authority  of  King  George  and  his  government  in  the 
Colonies  on  the  very  supposition  which  is  here  laid  down 
as  an  excuse  for  Papal  interference  in  our  domestic  affairs, 
of  which  the  administration  of  the  public  schools  is  under 
our  form  of  government  the  most  important,  in  fact,  the 
vital  part,  because  the  fundamental  ethical  principles  that 
lie  at  the  base  of  all  our  political  institutions  must  be  in- 
culcated in  every  generation.  Inasmuch  as  the  spiritual 
life  of  a  people  is  the  source  of  their  political  life,  their 
spiritual  and  political  manifestations  being  interdependent 
and  inseparable,  the  Apostolic  Delegate  is  interfering  with 
our  political  life  when  he  admonishes  citizens  of  the  Re- 
public to  be  faithful  to  the  dogma  of  the  infallibility,  since 
this  denies  the  sovereignty  of  our  people.  It  would  have 
been  well  for  Leo  XIII  to  have  studied  the  causes  of  the 
American  Rebellion  before  he  entrusted  Mr.  Sartolli  with 
his  spiritual  and  political  mission. 

The  "War  of  Independence  decided  once  for  all  that  the 
American  people  will  not  be  guided  in  their  spiritual  life 
by  any  foreign  authority  nor  will  they  permit  any  part  of 


800  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

our  population,  Iiowcvit  laro:t'  and  influential,  to  be  guided 
by  any  uitlandcr  from  across  tho  ocean.  To  grant  such 
permission  would  amount  to  a  cession  of  sovereignty.  The 
American  pi'ople  have  solved  the  difficult  problem  of  main- 
taining harmonious  relations  between  Church  and  State. 
In  the  nearest  future  they  will  also  solve  the  more  difficult 
problem  of  a  unity  of  all  Christians,  the  heart-felt  desire 
of  millions,  and  to  educe  from  such  unity  an  ideal  form  of 
government  and  a  social  organism  based  on  the  ethics  of 
the  Reformation  and  of  our  race.  Then  the  State  will 
hold  over  the  Catholic  religion  the  aegis  of  its  protection, 
always  provided  it  has  meanwhile  ceased  to  be  a  foreign 
plant. 

It  served  the  purpose  of  the  Deputy  Popes  diplomatically 
to  deny  that  their  mission  included  any  interference  in 
political  matters  and  that  their  Church  had  any  intention 
to  so  interfere,  or  acted  in  a  spirit  of  intolerance  or  duplic- 
ity. As  to  the  value  of  these  assertions  let  us  accept  the 
testimony  of  a  priest  of  that  Church  against  whom  never  a 
breath  of  suspicion  or  of  scandal  was  raised. 

Years  ago  Catholic  society  was  greatly  surprised  at  the 
sudden  resignation  of  the  Rev.  Father  A.  Lambert  as  a 
member  of  the  religious  order  of  the  Rederaptorists,  an 
offshoot  of  the  Jesuits.  After  many  years  of  mission  work 
Father  Lambert  had  been  stationed  for  five  years  in  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.  His  canonical  standing  being  perfectly  regular 
and  unquestioned  his  letter  of  resignation  should  be  read 
and  observed  by  all  Protestant  Americans  whenever  the 
Church  denies  any  interference  in  American  politics,  avers 
constant  love  for  what  is  true  and  right,  its  only  principle 
and  guide  from  which  it  has  never  swerved  to  become  the 
slave  of  ambition  for  temporal  power.  Part  of  Father 
Lambert's  letter  of  resignation,  addressed  to  Rev.  Father 
Raus,  C.  S.  S.  R.,  reads  as  follows: 

' '  I  freely  and  deliberately  withdraw^  from  the  priesthood 
and  communion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  de- 
cision I  now  take  is  the  outcome  of  a  veiy  long  mental 
struggle  and  much  thought  and  it  is  not  without  sorrow  I 
have  come  to  it,  for  it  is  always  hard  to  sever  the  relations 
of  twenty-one  years.  But  I  could  not  forever  resist  the 
voice  of  my  conscience,  I  had  to  obey  it  at  last  and  the 
logical  consequence  of  that  obedience  is  the  step  I  now 
take.     Knowing  what  I  Jcnoiv,  having  seen  what  I  saw,  and 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  301 

heard  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  I  cannot  any  longer 
force  my  miud  into  submission  to  the  Vatican,  nor  can  I 
longer  admit  the  claim  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and 
clergy  to  rule  not  only  in  religious  questions,  hut  also  in 
purely  scientific,  social  and  even  political  matters. 

''TJie  intolerance  and  duplicity  which,  almost  from  the 
day  of  my  ordination  to  the  priesthood,  I  found  and  met 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  have  hecome  utterly  un- 
bearable to  me.  .  .  I  could  not  act  otherwise  than  I  do  now. 
Had  I  remained  any  longer  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
after  coming  to  this  decision  I  would  have  debased  my 
manhood,  and  that  I  could  not  do,  and,  with  God's  help, 
never  will  do. 

"Though  leaving  the  Church  at  Rome  and  renouncing 
the  priesthood,  I  do  not  forget  and  never  will  forget  to 
cherish  the  memory  of  the  many  good  and  dear  friends 
whom  I  must  leave  to  travel  their  own  path.  We  are 
separated!  1  shall  not  interfere  with  them  and  I  hope 
they  will  not  interfere  with  me.  What  I  shall  do  is  my 
own  personal  affair.     We  live  in  a  free  country." 


CHAPTER  II 
The  American  Saloon  and  Jesuitical  Morality 

The  mission  of  the  Deputy  Popes  includes  the  charge  to 
effect  a  change  in  the  social  status  of  the  Church  in  this 
countty.  Until  Mr.  Satolli's  appearance  it  had  been  an 
Irish  establishment.  Though  the  Church  had  been  ex- 
tensively proselytizing  in  the  circles  of  our  upper-ten-thou- 
sand, yet,  it  had  failed  to  conform  in  customs  and  ethical 
laws  witli  American  notions  and  provincialisms.  The  new 
policy  of  Leo  XIII  towards  the  United  States  demanded 
that  such  a  change,  superficial  in  character,  should  be 
made  immediately  and  with  sensational  effect.  With  the 
quick  perception  of  the  Italian  statesman  of  the  Machiavel- 
lian school  Mr.  SatoUi  early  discovered  our  national  weak- 
ness for  "isms"  of  all  kinds  and  that  peculiar  hysteria  or 
national  fury  which,  as  the  French  say  "spills  the  babe  wiih 
the  bath."  Relying  further  on  the  advice  of  Archbishop 
Ireland,  a  prohibitionist,  it  was  quite  natural  that  Mr. 
Satolli  should  select  teetotalism  as  the  first  "ism"  to  de- 
monstrate the  Church's  brand  new  conversion  to  progressive 
ideas  and  its  loyalty  to  the  American  principle  of  personal 
liberty.  The  desire  of  the  Church  to  forsake  Bridget  and 
Patrick,  to  leave  the  shadow  of  the  saloon,  to  move  from 
the  kitchen  into  the  parlor  and  a  respectable  American 
neighborhood  was  seenically  set  before  the  people  with  a 
stage  trick  of  a  high  order. 

To  those  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  Church  in 
Europe  and  in  this  country,  the  decree  of  Mr.  Satolli,  in 
which  he  said  "that  the  liquor  traffic,  and  especially  as 
conducted  here  in  the  United  States,  is  the  source  of  much 
evil,"  is  a  most  humorous  composition  with  the  moral  "that 
the  Church  is  playing  one  of  its  old  tricks, ' '  this  time  gulling 
the  cold  water  people  for  the  Church's  political  service. 
Let  us  call  their  attention  to  Cardinal  (ribbons'  remark 
"that  the  discipline  of  the  Church  is  changeable,  just  as 
man  himself  is  ever  the  same  in  his  essential  characteristics, 

302 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  303 

while  his  dress  varies  according  to  the  fashions  of  the 
times"  and  "the  Church  adapts  itself  to  all  times  and 
places  and  circumstances,  and  this  she  does  without  any 
compromise  of  principle." 

Now,  what  are  the  principles  of  the  Church  as  to  the 
liquor  traffic  ?  There  is  not  a  Catholic  book  which  preaches 
or  even  recommends  total  abstinence.  In  all  monasteries 
'"liquidrd  noil  frangunt"  is  recognized.  The  monasteries 
in  the  wine  producing  countries  of  the  United  States  are 
wine  growers.  The  late  Bishop  McQuade  of  Rochester,  N. 
Y.,  owned  extensive  vineyards.  In  Europe  a  large  number 
of  monasteries  manufacture  celebrated  brands  of  liquors 
and  cultivate  grapes  and  sell  wines  of  world  wide  reputa- 
tion. There,  even  nuns  brew  beer.  Did  Mr.  Satolli  ever 
enjoy  in  a  refectory  the  jolly  after  dinner  song  of  the 
choir 

"Vinum  bonum  cum  sapore 

Bibit  abbas  cum  priore 

Et  conventus  de  pejore 

Bibit  cum  tristitia." 

The  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  decreed  (lit. 
VIII  cap.  Ill  S3):  "Monemus  denique  nastros  fideles,  qui 
liquorum  inebriantium  mercaturam  faciunt,  ut  serio  re- 
cogitent,  quod  quantisque  periculis  peccatisque  occasionibus 
eorum  quaestus,  quamvis  in  se  non  illicitus,  sit  circumdatus. 
.  .  Honestiorem  rationera  sustentandi  vitam,  si  possunt, 
seligant.  .  .  Camponas  suas  die  Dominica  clausas  servent. 
.  . "  "  We  recommend  to  the  faithful  who  deal  in  intoxicat- 
ing liquors,  seriously  to  consider,  that  their  calling,  though 
it  is  permissible,  has  many  dangers  and  offers  opportunities 
to  sin.  .  .  If  they  can,  they  shall  choose  another  calling. 
.  .  .  They  shall  keep  their  saloons  closed  on  Sunday." 

A  Jesuit  author  and  dogmatician  of  great  renown,  Father 
Gury,  says  in  his  "Casus  Conscientiae, "  which  is  a  guide 
for  the  confessional : 

"Casus  IV.  About  volition.  Richard,  a  saloon-keeper, 
is  glad  that  his  place  is  filled  with  guests  though  he  knows 
that  many  of  these  will  get  intoxicated.  To  earn  money 
and  to  prevent  blasphemy,  he  thinks  their  revelries  can't 
hurt  anybody.  He  even  welcomes  persons  who  use  indecent 
language  because  he  does  not  hold  liimself  responsible  for 
their  behavior. 


304  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

"First  question.  Having  no  other  motive  but  gain,  does 
he  commit  a  moral  sin  selling  liquors  to  persons  who 
certainly  will  get  intoxicated? 

"Answer.  Yes  and  No.  Yes,  in  certain  cases.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  case  of  a  pereon  already  intoxicated  because 
tile  seller's  pecuniary  loss  would  amount  to  little  and  total 
intoxication  could  be  prevented.  Theoretically  and  gen- 
erally— No,  because  the  saloon-keeper  is  not  obliged  to 
prevent  habitual  drinkers  from  sinning  and  thereby  to 
suffer  loss." 

From  Gury's  deductions  the  reader  can  define  the  true 
position  of  the  Romish  Church  in  regard  to  the  liquor 
traffic  and  also  draw  inspirations  as  to  Jesuitical  sophistry 
and  morality. 

It  is  true,  "the  liquor  traffic,  and  especially  as  con- 
ducted here  in  the  United  States," — and  principally  by 
the  faithful  Irish — "is  the  source  of  much  evil,  but  it  is 
also  the  main  source  of  the  political  power  of  the  Roman 
Church  and  of  much  of  its  wealth.  Therefore,  ]\Ir.  Satolli, 
permitting,  we  shall  adhere  to  the  belief,  that  his  decree  will 
remain  a  dead  letter  wherever  its  enforcement  might  ad- 
versely affect  the  interests  and  revenues  of  "the  Church  of 
Divine  origin  and  of  Divine  purpose. "  It  is  also  true,  that 
the  saloon  must  be  removed  from  American  politics,  be- 
fore political  or  industrial  reform  can  be  achieved,  and 
that  total  abstinence  is  a  necessity  for  all  persons,  who 
cannot  control  their  appetite  and  being  brutish  and  treacher- 
ous of  heart  are,  when  in  their  cups,  beastly  in  deportment, 
like  the  faithful  Irish  who  for  centuries  have  been  under  the 
spiritual  and  moral  fosterage  of  the  Roman  Church  but  in 
whom  that  church  has  failed  to  develop,  aye,  has  suppressed, 
the  moral  and  intellectual  faculties  with  which  they  were  by 
nature  so  largely  endowed.  Pope  Pius  IX  recognized  this 
necessity  in  the  case  of  the  Irish  by  receiving  in  special 
audience  Father  Matthew,  blessing  him  and  granting  to  his 
society  many  indulgences,  which  cost  nothing.  But  his 
Holiness,  the  infallible,  refused  to  grant  the  prayer  of 
Erin's  apostle  of  temperance,  to  abstain  from  wine. 

In  an  article  published  in  the  Forum,  April,  1888, 
Bishop  Spaulding  of  Peoria,  III.,  says:  "It  is  nonsense 
to  say  that  intemperance  will  be  the  ruin  of  American 
institutions.  History  does  not  mention  a  people  ruined 
by  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks."    But  history  mentions 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  305 

many  peoples  that  have  been  ruined  by  the  Roman  Church, 
and  that  the  peoples  using  intoxicating  drinks  always  con- 
quer the  peoples  of  abstemious  habits.  Every  student  of 
history  and  sociology  knows  that  the  evil  of  intemper- 
ance, and  with  it  the  social  evil,  are  only  symptoms  of  the 
disease  with  which  society  is  afflicted  when  the  strong  are 
permitted  to  suppress  the  weak  and  equal  opportunities  are 
denied  io  all.  The  American  saloon  in  all  its  characteristics 
and  in  its  demoralizing  effects  is  the  logical  result  of  a  policy 
in  defiance  of  nature,  a  policy  having  its  origin  more  or 
less,  in  moral  cowardice,  hypocrisy,  and  a  woeful  lack  of 
culture. 


CHAPTER  III 

Leo's  Encyclical  on  American  Affairs 

The  widely  advertised  encyclical  of  Leo  XIII  to  the 
Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  the  United  States,  which  by 
the  Romanists  had  for  months  been  heralded  as  probably 
marking  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  this  country,  aye,  in  the  history  of  the  country  itself, 
was  published  on  January  5,  1895,  119  years  after  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence. 

Considering  the  long  period  of  preparation,  almost  two 
years,  and  the  amount  of  care,  said  to  have  been  bestowed 
upon  it  by  his  Holiness,  it  is  certainly  a  disappointing 
document.  To  the  careful  student  of  Leo's  policy  in  Amer- 
ican affairs,  however,  the  thought  easily  suggests  itself  that 
the  result  of  the  elections  in  the  Fall  of  1894  caused  the 
substitution  of  a  thoroughly  revised  edition  for  the  orig- 
inal draft.  In  its  final  form  it  is  moderate  in  tone,  not  very 
aggressive  in  purpose,  its  mephistophelian  character  care- 
fully concealed.  Every  subject  considered  in  it  has  already 
been  enlarged  upon  in  these  pages,  therefore,  a  very  short 
discussion  of  its  salient  points  will  suffice. 

In  the  introduction  his  Holiness  craftily  and  in  the  most 
approved  Machiavellian  fashion  nurses  our  national  van- 
ity and  refers  to  the  labors  of  the  Spanish  monks  and 
priests  who  "let  the  light  of  the  gospel  shine  upon  the 
savage  tribes  discovered  by  the  Ligurian."  The  Vicar  of 
Christ  forgets  to  mention  the  cruelties  practiced  by  these 
missionaries  and  the  Inquisition,  cruelties  that  even  moved 
one  of  their  number,  Las  Casas,  to  recommend  the  impor- 
tation of  negro  slaves  in  order  to  ameliorate  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  aborigines.  Thus,  the  Roman  Church  is 
responsible  for  the  peon  system  of  Middle  and  South 
America  and  for  black  slavery  and  the  negro  question  of 
to-day,  which  may  yet  jeopardize  the  economic  and  social 
life  of  the  American  people. 

As  to  the  temporal  blessings  conferred  by  the  Romish 

306 


THE  MISSION  OF  OUR  DEPUTY  POPES  307 

Chureh  on  the  American  people,  his  Holiness,  having  read 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  cooly  states  that  the 
original  purpose  of  the  institutions  of  the  Church  has  been 
the  "pursuit  of  happiness,"  He  fails  to  state  whether 
this  pursuit  is  in  the  direction  of  the  Inquisition,  of  Autos- 
da-fe,  of  superstition  and  of  ignorance  according  to  the 
doctrine  set  forth  by  a  Catholic  writer  in  these  words :  that 
"the  ignorant  peasants  of  Catholic  countries  who  can 
neither  read  nor  write  and  are  contented  to  follow,  are  by 
far  happier  than  the  enlightened  peoples  of  Protestant 
countries  who  strive  for  their  inherent  rights." 

His  Holiness  is  highly  pleased  with  the  prosperity  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States  which  he  thinks 
is  due  to  the  license  it  enjoys.  Of  course,  he  does  not 
say  so  in  plain  words,  but  it  is  the  meaning  of  the  care- 
fully worded  phraseology.  Lest,  however,  the  peoples  of 
Europe  should  use  this  admission  as  an  argument  for  the 
separation  of  the  State  from  the  Church,  Leo  XIII  expresses 
the  hope  that  in  time  to  come  the  Church  may  enjoy  the 
favor  of  the  laws  and  the  patronage  of  the  public  authority. 
In  other  words,  he  expects  that  the  Church  will  eventually 
gain  the  mastery  over  the  American  nation,  as  it  gained, 
through  Tammany  Hall  and  its  Republican  allies,  the  mas- 
tery over  the  State  of  New  York  and  its  treasury.  As  to 
the  political  position  of  the  Church  within  the  State,  the 
Pontifex  Maximus  states:  "It  would  be  very  erroneous  to 
draw  the  conclusion  that  in  the  United  States  is  to  be 
sought  the  type  of  the  most  desirable  status  of  the  Church, 
or  that  it  would  be  universally  lawful  or  expedient  for  State 
and  Church  to  be,  as  in  America,  dissevered  and  divorced. ' ' 

As  to  the  labor  movement,  his  Holiness  recommends 
the  organization  of  Catholic  workingmen's  unions  under 
priestly  guardianship  and  cautions  the  workingmen  to  be 
content  \^^th  their  lot,  to  submit  meekly  to  spoliation, 
not  to  interfere,  politically  or  otherwise,  with  trusts  and 
corporations  and  the  anarchical  conditions  of  society,  and 
to  strike  from  their  vocabulary  the  word  "scab,"  that 
they  may  not  imperil  far  weightier  interests,  which  means, 
the  interests  of  the  Roman  camarilla  and  their  bargain  with 
plutocracy  and  international  capitalism. 

Leo  XIII  endorses  the  action  of  the  Third  Plenary  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore  as  to  the  school  question  and  as  Pontifex 
Maximus  states,   that   the   mission  of  "Mgr.   Satolli"   is 


308  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

principally  "to  preserve  in  the  multitude  a  submissive 
spirit."  The  Deputy-Pope  has  been  sent  ''in  the  exercise 
of  the  divinely-hestowcd  gift  of  the  primacy  not  by  an 
adventitious  but  an  inherent  right  to  send  forth  legates 
to  Christian  nations  and  peoples."  In  other  words,  like 
liis  predecessors  in  the  Pontifical  chair,  Leo  XIII  claims  by 
inherent  right  io  he  the  supreme  ruler  of  nations  and  peo- 
ples, and,  therefore,  of  the  Protestant  American  people. 

As  to  the  conversion  of  American  Protestants  whose 
"dissent  in  matters  of  faith  is  a  matter  rather  of  inher- 
itance than  of  wall"  his  Holiness  appears  to  think  that 
American  Protestants  are  imbeciles,  unable  to  think  for 
themselves,  spiritually  a  lot  of  serfs  listlessly  following  the 
traditions  and  superstitions  of  the  past,  and  intellectually 
a  nation  of  minors  who  are  anxiously  awaiting  the  mentor- 
ship  of  the  old  man  on  the  Tiber  to  lead  them  across  the 
Jordan.  In  the  seclusion  of  the  Vatican,  Leo  XIII  ap- 
peared hopeful  of  the  conversion  of  the  American  heretics 
and  as  an  infallible  means  recommended:  "In  this  matter, 
if  the  first  place  belongs  to  the  Bishops  and  clergy,  the 
second  place  belongs  to  the  laity,  who  have  it  in  their 
power  to  aid  the  apostolic  efforts  of  the  clergy  by  the  prob- 
ity of  their  morals  and  the  integrity  of  their  lives.  Great 
is  the  force  of  example." 

Indeed,  it  is.  ' '  The  example  of  the  Tammany  braves,  of 
the  Romish  Irish  politicians,  and  of  the  multitude  of  Rom- 
ish inmates  of  our  jails  must  work  the  conversion  of  the 
American  Protestants  to  Roman  Catholicism. ' ' 

Until  such  example  has  done  wonders,  the  American  na- 
tion as  a  whole  will  not  journey  to  Canossa. 


PART  XII 

THE  SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  THE  AMERICAN 
UNIVERSITIES 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Organization  and  Evolution  of  Society 

section  i 

In  the  Direction  of  Socialism.  The  American  patriot 
foresees  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  between  the  Protestants 
and  Romanists,  with  the  victory  in  favor  of  the  former, 
provided  the  battle  is  fought  on  the  broad  and  elevating 
principles  of  humanity  and  along  the  line  of  the  successive 
social-political  evolutions  of  the  Reformation  and  of  the 
Teutonic  race  and  not  in  the  spirit  of  sectarian  creed  and 
American  provincialism.  The  solution  of  the  question, 
whether  the  United  States  shall  ever  become  a  province 
of  Rome  or  another  Patrimonium  Petri,  involves  that  of 
the  social  question.  The  one  is  inseparable  from  the  other. 
If  the  present  order  of  society,  and  hence  the  disintegrating 
influences  of  industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism,  are  suf- 
fered to  continue,  Rome  must  eventually  succeed  in  her  plans 
for  the  reconstruction  of  American  society  because  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  agencies  will  in  the  end  have  neutralized 
all  the  ethical  forces  which  alone  are  able  to  sustain  the 
American  democracy. 

The  social  question,  the  relations  of  the  individual  to 
society,  is  as  old  as  civilization.  In  the  course  of  time 
tribes  and  nations  have  been  evolved  from  primitive  bar- 
barism. Civilization  had  its  origin  in  the  effort  of  indi- 
viduals endowed  by  nature  with  superior  intellect  to 
improve  their  condition.  Having  obtained  a  controlling 
influence  over  their  neighbors  or  tribe  and  therewith  ma- 
terial advantages,  they  were  forced  to  devise  measures  for 
the  protection  of  their  persons  and  property  and,  therefore, 
to  enter  into  close  association  for  defensive  and  offensive 
purposes  against  the  brute  force  of  the  physically  strongest 

309 


310  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

and  of  the  ma&ses.  To  make  the  protection  which  their 
association  atl'orded  the  more  effective  the  intellectual  class 
was  forced  to  devise  measures  for  the  elevation  of  the 
masses  and  for  their  j)rotection  a^rainst  the  physically 
strongest  of  the  sajne  tribe  or  nation,  thereby  to  obtain  the 
disposition  of  the  j)hysieal  forces  of  the  former  against  the 
aggressions  of  tlie  latter  and  of  less  civilized  neighboring 
tribes  or  nations.  To  secure  to  this  combination  of  intel- 
lectual and  physical  forces  permanency,  strength  and 
thereby  authority,  it  appeared  proper  to  invest  it  as  a 
whole  with  certain  rights  and  powers  which  of  course  had 
to  be  defined  and  formulated  by  the  intellectual  class. 
Thus  society  was  organized.  Thenceforth  its  evolution  has 
continually  been  from  a  crude  isolated  individualism  to- 
ward a  gradually  more  and  more  complex  organic  unity. 
With  each  successive  progress  of  the  human  race  in 
intellectuality  and  therefore  in  material  civilization,  so- 
ciety absorbed  more  of  the  functions  that  minister  to  the 
whole.  This  process  has  continually  met  with  the  oppo- 
sition from  the  physically  stronger,  or  materially  richer, 
than  their  intellectually  more  highly  endowed  neighbors, 
and  also  very  often  from  the  masses. 

What  to-day  appears  to  us  as  the  natural  and  indis- 
putable right  of  society  was  at  some  time  in  the  history  of 
civilization  considered  by  individuals  and  entire  classes  as 
outrages  on  their  individual  rights  and  privileges  which  had 
for  centuries  been  recognized  as  such.  For  instance,  the 
feudal  lords  of  the  Middle  Ages  opposed  with  all  their 
might  the  attempts  of  society  to  deprive  them  of  the 
right  to  levy  tolls  on  commerce  and  industry.  They  main- 
tained, and  justly  so,  that  society  tried  to  interfere  with 
vested  rights  and  to  confiscate  private  property.  From 
the  time  that  society  assumed  the  protection  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  his  property  to  the  time  when  society  as- 
sumed the  supervision  of  banks,  every  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion has  been  in  the  direction  of  socialism  and  met  with 
opposition  on  the  plea  set  up  by  the  robber  baron  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Undoubtedly  he  suffered  an  injustice.  At 
the  time  his  ancestors  arrogated  by  might  or  cunning  or 
received  from  competent  authority  the  privilege  to  levy 
tolls  on  the  wayfarer  and  to  rob  and  slay  the  Jewish  trader, 
society  held  that  such  acts  were  legal  and  not  immoral  and 
therefore  sanctioned  them.    When,  however,  the  necessities 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       311 

of  society  demanded  the  safety  of  the  highways  and  free  in- 
tercourse between  the  marts,  that  is,  when  the  commercial 
class  attained  superiority  in  intellect  and  might  over  the 
robber  barons  and  strongly  influenced  the  direction  of  af- 
fairs, then  society  experienced  conscientious  scruples  as  to 
the  morality  and  legality  of  robbing  and  slaying  the  way- 
farer. Of  course,  the  robber  baron  could  not  follow  the 
reasoning  process  by  which  he  should  be  stripped  of  priv- 
ileges honestly  acquired  by  his  ancestors  according  to  the 
legal  and  moral  code  of  their  time  and  for  centuries  sanc- 
tioned by  custom  and  the  church,  privileges  which  had 
secured  to  his  class  wealth,  fame,  and  social  recognition. 
He  could  not  understand  why  he  should  suffer  death  as 
a  felon  for  defending  his  property  because  he  did  not  un- 
derstand that  every  progress  in  civilization  is  the  result 
of  a  revolutionary  act  which  in  itself,  according  to  the  moral 
standard  of  the  past,  is  robbery  and  therefore  if  unsuccess- 
ful, a  crime.     Thus  it  has  been  and  ever  will  be. 

The  robber  baron  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Southern 
slave  owner  of  the  nineteenth  century  held  exactly  the 
same  position  in  economics,  ethics,  and  politics  and  were 
sustained  by  law  and  custom  and  religious  systems,  Wliat 
to-day  is  legal  and  recognized  by  society  as  morally  cor- 
rect and  sanctioned  by  religious  systems,  within  a  century 
may  be  held  to  be  a  crime  against  indi\'iduals  and  the  wel- 
fare of  society.  When  manufacturers  lock  out  their  em- 
ployees that  by  misery  and  starvation  they  may  be  coerced 
and  refuse  to  accept  arbitration  though  the  welfare  of  so- 
ciety is  jeopardized,  they  are  justified  in  their  action  by  law 
and  custom  and  are  sustained  by  the  Constitution  and, 
therefore,  by  the  National  and  State  Executives  as  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  dominant  faction  of  society  which  a  cen- 
tury ago  framed  the  Constitution.  But  the  time  will  come 
when  society,  having  suffered  repeatedly  and  more  intensely 
from  such  arbitrary  acts  of  individuals  or  corporations,  and 
labor  having  risen  in  political  power,  will  experience  severe 
conscientious  scruples  as  to  the  legality  and  morality 
of  a  social  institution  which  permits  individuals  or  cor- 
porations, at  their  pleasure  and  for  the  furtherance  of 
their  private  interests,  to  stop  the  functions  of  society  and 
to  jeopardize  the  peace  and  welfare  of  a  nation.  Then 
may  the  manufacturers  share  the  fate  of  the  robber  barons 
of  the  Middle  Ages  whose  repression  marked  a  period  in 


312  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  progress  of  the  human  race.  The  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion will  continue  in  the  direction  of  socialism  until  sooner 
or  later,  under  one  fonn  or  another,  the  principle  of  col- 
lective ownership  and  control  of  all  the  means  of  produc- 
tion shall  have  been  permanently  established  as  the  foun- 
dation of  society,  provided  the  masses,  while  striving  for 
their  goal,  will  sub77iit  to  the  leadership  of  the  intellectual 
class.  Otherwise,  civilized  society,  after  having  reached  a 
certain  stage  in  the  direction  of  socialism  will  succumb  to 
the  chaotic  and  therefore  destructive  forces  of  matenalism 
and  thus  gradually  sink  back  into  barbarism. 

section  ii 

The  Masses  and  Their  Leaders 

Society,  and  therefore  all  wealth,  is  the  creation  of  the 
intellect.  When  man  emerged  from  primitive  barbarism 
until  he  had  reached  a  certain  condition  in  material  civili- 
zation, his  fellows  of  superior  intellect,  to  whose  efforts  he 
was  indebted  for  his  elevation,  were  undoubtedly  the  rul- 
ing class  and,  therefore,  the  possessors  of  all  wealth.  When 
it  became  necessary  to  defend  their  possessions  against  bar- 
baric neighbors,  the  intellectual  class  had  to  transfer  part 
of  their  wealth  and  authority  to  the  physically  strongest 
of  their  people  in  order  to  enlist  their  services  for  defensive 
purposes.  With  each  successive  assault  by  barbarians  this 
process  of  partition  was  repeated,  until  the  physically 
strongest  became  the  ruling  class  and  the  possessors  of  all 
wealth. 

The  close  affinity  between  men  of  like  passions,  between 
imposture  and  credulity,  brutishness  and  moral  cowardice, 
continued  and  sustained  the  intimate  relations  which  had 
existed  between  the  masses  and  the  physically  strongest 
before  these  dominated  society  and  oppressed  the  former. 
These  relations  with  the  masses  enabled  the  physically 
strongest  to  reduce  the  intellectual  class  to  a  dependent  po- 
sition. The  barbaric  results  of  this  combination  of  anti- 
social forces  is  traceable  throughout  the  history  of  the  hu- 
man race  down  to  our  days.  It  is  this  fact  which  enables  us 
to  draw  conclusions  as  to  the  development  of  society  in 
prehistoric  times  and  to  the  causes  leading  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  prehistoric  civilization.  The  anti-social  forces  of 
this  combination  cause  all  the  evils  which  in  our  times  re- 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       313 

tard  the  progress  of  the  human  race.  The  history  of  civ- 
ilized peoples  from  its  dawn  to  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  shows  that  the  intellectual  class  always  came  to 
grief  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones  of  the  up- 
permost and  lowest  strata  in  society.  Even  in  Protestant 
countries  and  in  democracies  such  has  been  the  case.  This 
peculiar  relation  reveals  to  us  the  otherwise  inexplicable 
mystery  of  the  political  action  of  the  masses  in  modern 
democracies,  wherein  voluntarily  they  sustain  brute  force 
and  cunning  in  continuation  of  the  process  of  legal  spolia- 
tion. The  fact  is,  that  the  masses  are  not  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced in  ethical  culture  or  intellectuality  to  comprehend 
their  own  condition  and  the  all-important  bearing  of  intel- 
lectual and  ethical  progress  on  that  of  society  and  there- 
fore on  their  condition.  Public  education  is  of  recent  date 
and  sadly  wanting  in  all  the  qualities  necessary  for  the  ethi- 
cal culture  of  the  masses.  This  always  has  been  studiously 
neglected,  a  sin  of  commission  and  omission  which  may,  in 
the  nearest  future,  exact  fearful  retribution.  Whenever  the 
mighty  oppressed  the  masses  beyond  endurance,  these  ac- 
cepted the  leadership  of  the  intellectual  class,  and  then 
humanity  invariablj^  advanced  with  mighty  strides.  From 
this  affinity  between  men  of  like  passions  Leo  XIII 
evolved  the  new  Papal  policy  so  far  as  it  aims  at  the  perma- 
nent repression  of  the  masses. 

From  the  time  that  the  intellectual  class  had  to  surren- 
der the  control  of  society  to  superior  physical  force  down 
to  the  Reformation  intelligence  strove  for  supreme  power, 
using  as  a  means  the  inborn  desire  of  man  to  discover  the 
cause  of  his  being.  From  crude  fetishism,  through  the 
cultural  process  of  ages,  intelligence  gradually  approached 
the  summit  of  power  in  the  theocratic  systems  of  govern- 
ment of  Egypt  and  of  the  Hebrews,  and  finally  reached  it 
in  the  Papacy,  during  the  ]\Iiddle  Ages.  Whenever  during 
this  process  intelligence  allied  itself  with  the  oppressors 
of  the  people  or  slavishly  served  Mammon,  nations  and 
realms  were  doomed.  When  finally  through  the  Reforma- 
tion the  democratic  spirit  of  the  Teutons,  the  humanizing 
agencies  of  the  family  and  the  humane  in  Christianity  re- 
lea-sed  the  human  mind  from  all  bondage,  intelligence  be- 
came altruistic  and  fully  qualified  to  determine  the  fate  of 
man  in  all  his  social  relations.  The  social  panacea  of  Leo 
XIII,  apparently  expressive  only  of  Papal  ambition  and  lust 


314  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

oi'  irain  and  power,  accepts  by  implication  as  inevitable  and 
predetermined  the  progression  of  intelligence  to  supreme 
power  as  its  tinal  spiritual  and  social  mission.  Leo's  idea 
to  facilitate  this  social  process  and  to  advance  the  intel- 
lectual class  in  the  garb  of  the  priesthood  to  the  sole  di- 
rection of  society  under  the  preponderant  influence  of 
the  Papacy  might  be  called  sublime,  were  it  not  that  he  in- 
tended to  yoke  intelligence  with  superstition  in  the  service 
of  IMammon. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  tlie  (juestions  as  to  the  sci- 
entific truth  and  ethical  worth  of  the  social  system  born 
of  the  intellectual  greatness  and  humane  qualities  of  Karl 
IMarx,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  advanced  the  cause  of 
humanity  when  he  impressed  the  masses  with  the  necessity 
of  their  moral  elevation  and  counseled  their  independent 
political  action.  It  is  deporable  that  his  successors  in  the 
leadership  of  the  Socialistic  Labor  Party  whose  intellec- 
tual feebleness  cannot  discern  or  appreciate  the  recipro- 
cal relations  of  the  intellectual  and  ethical  in  Marx's 
economic  system,  misapply  the  demonstrations  of  his  re- 
searches and  mislead  the  masses,  maintaining  that  all 
wealth  is  the  creation  of  crude  labor,  produced  solely  by 
the  masses,  and  is,  therefore,  their  exclusive  inheritance. 
To  the  student  of  history  it  appears  to  be  a  fateful  error, 
retarding  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  economic  emancipa- 
tion of  the  masses,  because  it  enables  cunning,  ignorance, 
and  brutishness  to  raise  an  artificial  barrier  between  the 
intellectual  class  and  the  masses  and,  therefore,  must  ex- 
tend, perhaps  indefinitely,  the  period  of  society's  enthrall- 
ment  by  might  and  cumiing. 

At  a  meeting  of  trades-unions  in  Cooper  Union,  N,  Y., 
Mr.  Burns,  the  English  Labor  leader,  said :  "I  can  see  by 
your  labor  papers  that  you  believe  with  us  in  England  that 
frock  coats  and  high  hats  have  had  their  day,  and  that  the 
time  has  come  when  fustian  and  corduroy  should  have  their 
innings."  This  is  the  language  of  the  demagogical  agi- 
tator getting  a  living  by  trading  on  the  credulity  of  the 
masses.  In  this  single  sentence,  Mr.  Burns  betrays  the 
utmost  ignorance,  illiteracy,  and  want  of  familiarity  with 
elementary,  political  and  historical  facts,  an  ignorance 
which  unfortunately  is  common  to  all  the  so-called  labor 
leaders  and  blatant  impostors  who  attempt  to  dominate 
a  movement  for  the  intellectual  and  ethical  advancement 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       315 

of  the  human  race  by  sonorous  and  emotional  proclamations 
against  the  intellectual  and  cultured  class.  Convincing 
proof  of  the  inferiority  of  Mr.  Burns'  mental  equipment  and 
of  that  of  his  colleagues  is  this  ignorance  of  the  elementary 
law  of  human  history  that  the  really  suffering  classes  and 
races  of  mankind  never  break  into  spontaneous  revolt  and 
that  social  insurrections  always  begin  at  points  at  which 
social  injustice  is  diminishing  because  the  intellectual  class 
has  risen  to  an  important  position  in  society  and  is  forced 
into  insurrection  to  prevent  its  reduction.  Has  Mr.  Burns 
studied  the  history  of  the  insurrection  of  the  Roman  slaves, 
of  the  serfs  in  Germany,  of  the  peasants  in  England  and 
France  ?  History  teaches  and  the  fact  is  observable  in  every 
day  life  that  the  masses  serve  best  the  most  tyrannical 
master.  The  Jewish  king  who  answered  "My  father  hath 
chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you  with  scor- 
pions," had  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  collective 
character  and  action  of  the  masses  than  all  the  so-called 
labor  leaders  who  for  this  very  reason  lack  all  the  qualifi- 
cations for  leadership.  Until  the  intellectual  class  has  an 
irrepressible  grievance,  the  masses  will  serve  their  masters 
and  will  vote  for  their  masters.  Besides,  Mr.  Burns,  the 
American  workman  dresses  not  in  corduroy  and  fustian,  and 
a  high  hat  and  a  frock  coat  fit  him  perfectly. 

SECTION   III 

The  Division  of  Property.  During  the  early  historical 
times  peoples  roamed  over  vast  territories  and  without 
great  physical  exertion  found  sufficient  subsistence.  But 
as  soon  as  they  multiplied  and  the  germs  of  material  civil- 
ization were  developed,  the  struggle  for  existence  began; 
at  first  between  tribes  or  nations,  and  later,  when  the  popu- 
tion  became  more  and  more  dense,  between  the  individ- 
uals of  the  same  tribe  or  nation.  At  this  period  of  the 
progress  of  the  human  race  the  first  division  of  property 
took  place. 

So  long  as  peoples  led  a  purely  nomadic  life,  political 
or  social  inequality,  as  it  grows  out  of  the  difference  in 
the  amount  of  wealth  possessed  by  the  individual,  was 
impossible.  Wealth  in  chattels  is  perishable  within  the  life- 
time of  the  owner;  it  is  movable,  not  permanent  and 
thus  not  subject  to  entail.  But  as  soon  as  peoples  were 
forced  to  forsake  nomadic  life,  and  to  rely  for  subsistence 


316  CASSOCK  AXD  SWORD 

on  agriculture,  wealth  bt-camc  fixed,  represented  by  the  ex- 
tent of  the  territory  oecupit-d,  and  rated  by  the  fertility 
of  the  soil.  The  nations  settled  in  fertile  countries,  blessed 
with  a  climate  favorable  to  production,  in  the  course  of 
time  became  rich,  fell  into  indolence,  and  thereafter  were 
an  easy  prey  to  neighbors  by  nature  less  favored.  The  con- 
querore  took  possession  of  the  land  and  of  all  movable 
wealth,  subjugated  the  conquered,  reduced  them  to  pauper- 
ism, and  thus  to  serfdom  or  slavery. 

In  the  primitive  condition  of  the  human  race  all  wealth 
rooted  in  the  soil ;  it  followed  as  a  logical  conclusion  that 
whoever  was  in  possession  of  the  soil  became  the  ruler  of 
its  occupants.  Thus  political  equality  ceased.  With  the 
conquest  of  nations  and  the  subjugation  of  the  conquered 
to  serfdom  or  slavery  a  new  form  of  government  became  a 
necessity.  To  keep  the  conquered  in  subjugation,  the  ter- 
ritory forcibly  acquired  had  to  be  divided  into  districts, 
over  which  those  of  the  conquerore  most  distinguished  in 
war  w^ere  set  to  preserve  the  spoils.  From  time  to  time, 
to  suppress  local  rebellions  of  the  conquered  and  for  other 
causes,  it  was  held  to  be  politic  to  extend  the  system  of  di- 
vision until  all  the  prominent  men  among  the  conquerors 
were  provided  for  and  assigned  to  the  government  of  dis- 
tinct territories.  By  degrees,  and  a.s  opportunity  offered, 
the  rulers  thus  set  up,  being  physically  the  strongest,  re- 
duced their  followers  to  vassalage  and  held  the  land  to  be 
their  individual  property.  The  principle  of  the  right  of 
individual  ownership  in  the  soil  once  firmly  established,  it 
needed  but  the  lapse  of  time  when  the  ruling  race  or  tribe, 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  or  value  of  individual  owner- 
ship in  land,  were  divided  into  classes  or  castes.  TJius  so- 
cial equality  ceased. 

During  the  history  of  the  human  race  this  process  of  di- 
vision continued  under  one  form  or  another  down  to  mod- 
ern times.  Each  political  or  social  convulsion,  each  sys- 
tem of  religion,  the  migration  of  races  and  nations,  had 
their  origin,  more  or  less,  in  the  desire  either  to  extend 
or  to  stop  this  process,  or  to  change  the  beneficiaries  there- 
of. In  ancient  times  the  achievement  of  each  social  con- 
vulsion was  but  a  change  from  the  nearly  equal  distri- 
bution of  wealth  among  the  turbulent  masses,  constituted 
as  comjnunistic  democracies  into  anarchy,  or  the  con- 
centration of  all  wealth  in  the  possession  of  an  oligarchy, 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       317 

or  of  a  despot.  After  a  short  period  of  barbaric 
splendor  and  sham  greatness  the  body  politic  was  beset 
by  the  ills  of  autocracy  or  of  tumultuous  despotism: 
stagnation,  decadence  and  disintegration.  In  either  case 
the  result  was  unfavorable  to  the  true  progress  of  the  hu- 
man race.  A  change  of  ownership  in  wealth  docs  not  in 
itself  tend  to  develop  the  humane  in  the  individual,  in  his 
relations  to  society,  or  in  society  itself. 

SECTION   IV 

The  Humane  and  the  Family  in  Civilization.  It  is  true 
that  in  some  of  the  ancient  political  bodies  wise  legislators 
attempted  to  infuse  the  humane  into  the  laws  in  order  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  masses  or  to  insure  the  per- 
manent welfare  of  the  community.  Every  such  attempt 
proved  abortive.  To  the  student  of  history  the  cause  of 
the  failure  of  even  the  wisest  in  ancient  times  to  construct  so- 
ciety on  a  purely  humane  basis,  is  easily  discernible.  True 
civilization  is  grounded  in  love  and  in  the  solidarity  of  in- 
terest of  all  the  members  of  the  body  politic ;  it  depends  on 
the  alternating  and  reciprocal  relations  of  the  ethical  and 
the  material ;  but  the  germs  of  love  find  nourishment  only 
in  the  family,  where  woman  becomes,  or  ought  to  become, 
with  man  an  equal  factor  in  the  moral  development  of  the 
human  race.  Solidarity  of  interest  and  with  and  through 
it  the  ethical  development  of  the  family  is  possible  only 
in  a  community  whereof  every  member  is  in  the  enjoyment 
of  personal  liberty  and  economic  independence  through  the 
full  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  his  toil.  With  but  one  ex- 
ception we  look  in  vain  into  the  history  of  ancient  na- 
tions for  any  social  institution  identical  or  in  any  way 
similar  to  that  of  our  family.  No  link  connected  the  in- 
dividual in  his  purely  humane  relations  with  society.  All 
culture  was,  therefore,  merely  of  the  intellect  and  civ- 
ilization moved  only  in  the  grooves  of  materialism;  it 
was  a  sham  civilization  through  which  love  and  ethical  cul- 
ture, and  hence  justice  to  all,  could  not  enter  into  the  body 
politic.  The  exclusive  application  to  society  of  the  law  of 
physical  force  caused  it  to  be  divided  into  two  classes 
only,  that  of  the  very  rich,  and  that  of  the  very  poor;  the 
one,  given  up  to  materialism,  became  profligate  and  de- 
bauched, the  other  was  degraded  to  the  level  of  the  beast. 
In  such  a  society  the  highest  intellectual  and  material  de- 


318  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

velopment  thronjrh  its  verj'^  oripjin  in  purely  ph.ysioal  de- 
sires and  i^urposes  engenders  moral  leprosy  which  destroys 
the  organism  of  the  State.  Republican  Greece  and  of  nec- 
essity her  arts,  theocratic  Ep:>'pt  and  her  rudely  developed 
sciences,  the  despotic  or  oligarchic  empires  and  communities 
of  Asia  ]\Iinor  and  their  mercantile  and  oriental  riches,  were 
tluis  swept  away,  and  for  centuries  ever}''  trace  of  their  glory 
and  culture  was  lost. 

When  ancient  Home  reached  the  climax  of  political  power 
and  material  splendor,  the  progress  of  disintegration  of  so- 
ciety too  had  reached  its  height.  In  its  organization  no 
trace  of  the  humane  could  be  discerned;  it  was  darkness 
here  and  darkness  there.  Then  it  was  that  with  the  moral 
and  spiritual  life  of  nations  at  lowest  ebb,  two  events  oc- 
curred which  were  destined  to  cause  a  regeneration  of  the 
human  race,  and  to  impress  on  its  progress  two  distinct 
features. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  came  and  preached  the  gospel  of  divine 
love.  Of  all  ancient  historical  nations  the  Hebrew  was  the 
only  one  Avhose  religious  system  was  founded  on  Deism,  in 
whose  social  order,  though  not  as  a  cardinal  fact  in  it,  the 
family  was  an  established  institution.  Thus  it  happens 
that  the  earliest  attempts  made  by  statesmen  and  lawgivers 
at  a  solution  of  the  social  problem  are  to  be  found  in  the 
histor\^  of  the  Hebrews;  we  recognize  in  the  IMosaic  Law 
many  features  which  aim  at  an  equitable  distribution  of 
property,  and  consequently  at  the  attainment  of  a  higher 
civilization.  With  the  advent  of  Christian  philosophy,  an 
amalgam  of  ancient  philosophical  systems,  the  social  order 
of  the  Semitic  race  might  have  been  perfected.  Unfortu- 
nately for  the  Hebrew  nation  it  lacked,  at  the  time,  the 
moral  and  physical  energy  to  assimilate  Avith  its  religious 
system  the  new  doctrine,  reconstruct  its  social  status,  and 
thus  become  the  standard  bearer  of  a  truly  humanizing 
civilization.  Christ,  the  Savior,  was  crucified.  Had  he 
preached  the  new  gospel  at  the  time  of  the  Maccabean  en- 
deavor for  national  unity,  the  history  of  the  world  might 
read  differently — Judaism  Avould  have  embraced  mankind. 
When  ]\Iohammed  formulated  the  social  order  of  the  Semitic 
race,  the  Germanic  element  was  already  suflficiently  power- 
ful to  confine  it  to  the  Orient.  From  the  time  the  Eastern 
nations  adopted  the  Koran  and  with  it  polygamy  as  a  re- 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       319 

ligious  custom,  they  ceased  to  influence  the  development  of 
true  civilization. 

Nearly  concurrent  with  the  advent  of  Christ,  from  the 
vast  plains  of  Asia,  a  mighty  wave  of  human  beings  rolled 
westward.  By  causes  unknown  driven  from  their  homes, 
the  Germanic  tribes  fell  like  an  avalanche  on  the  effeminate 
nations  of  the  civilized  world.  The  Roman  Empire  crum- 
bled to  dust  under  the  mighty  blows  of  a  people  who,  ut- 
terly devoid  of  material  civilization,  possessed  a  rudely 
developed  social  order  in  which  the  family  was  the  unit — 
a  people  who  upheld  monogamy,  economic  and  social  equal- 
ity, and  therefore  justice.  On  the  Teuton  institution  of 
the  family  Christianity  and  its  civilization  has  been  reared. 

SECTION   V 

The  Guilds  of  the  Middle  Ages.  When  through  the 
adoption  of  Christianity  the  doctrine  of  brotherly  love  had 
been  made  the  binding  element  in  the  social  order  of  the 
Teutons,  they  were  ready  to  enter  on  their  mission  of  re- 
generating and  reconstructing  society,  of  opening  the  great 
store-houses  of  nature,  penetrating  its  mysteries,  and 
creating  new  wealth  through  the  products  of  industry.  It 
may  be  safely  stated,  that  only  from  the  period  specified 
the  social  forces  tended  to  the  extensive  development  of  in- 
dustry. Ancient  times  knew  no  such  endeavor.  During  the 
Middle  Ages,  in  the  cities  of  Germany,  France  and  Italy, 
wherever  the  Teutonic  element  was  dominant,  the  mechani- 
cal arts  flourished  to  a  high  degree ;  the  artisans,  employers 
and  employees,  were  banded  together  in  numerous  and  pow- 
erful bodies,  and  exerted  as  such  and  by  degrees,  as  they 
formed  a  distinct  caste,  the  so-called  middle  class,  great 
social  and  political  influence.  In  fact,  during  the  long  spir- 
itual and  political  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  guilds, 
the  trade-unions  of  the  times,  were  the  only  strongholds  and 
safeguards  of  personal  liberty  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  despotism  of  Rome,  of  the  princes,  and  of  the  landed 
aristocracy,  the  reactionary  and  anti-social  forces  of  that 
time.  Moreover,  the  guilcU  alone  preserved  in  part  the  in- 
dependent religious  spirit  of  the  primitive  Christian 
Church ;  the  rest  of  the  Christian  World,  under  the 
spiritual  and  social  despotism  of  theocratic  Rome,  had 
fallen  back  into  idolatry  or  into  a  state  of  utter  spiritual 


320  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

or  roli^ons  apathy.  It  is  an  historical  fact,  that,  but  for 
the  love  of  rcliprious  and  civic  liberty  among  the  sturdy 
artisans  of  Teuton  descent,  individually  and  as  associated 
bodies,  the  Reformation  would  have  been  impossible,  in  Ger- 
many as  well  as  in  Kngland,  and  Christian  civilization  might 
have  shared  the  fate  of  that  of  the  ancients. 

The  industrial  communities  of  the  cities,  represented  in 
the  guilds,  became  with  their  growth  in  intelligence,  num- 
bers, and  wealth  an  object  of  bitter  hatred  and  deep  dis- 
trust of  the  ruling  classes.  Toward  the  close  of  the  P^'if- 
teenth  century  the  upper  classes  and  the  artisans  stood,  so 
far  as  their  civic,  political,  and  religious  views  and  ma- 
terial interests  were  concerned,  arrayed  against  each  other. 
Signs  of  the  approach  of  another  great  social  revolution, 
through  which  the  human  race  should  enter  into  a 
higher  state  of  civilization,  were  multiplying.  Wherever 
theocracy  had  not  entirely  suppressed  or  corrupted  the 
spirtual  and  social  life  of  nations,  that  is,  in  the  countries 
wholly  settled  by  the  Germanic  peoples  and  in  which  they 
had  in  dominant  numbers  assimilated  with  the  conquered, 
and  had  engrafted  their  social  order  on  the  body  politic, 
the  industrial  clasvses  were  ready  to  enact  the  great  social- 
revolutionary  drama  which  commenced  with  the  Reforma- 
tion and  whose  first  part  closed  with  the  War  of  Indepen- 
dence. The  nailing  of  the  Ninety-five  Theses  against  the 
Papal  Indulgences  to  the  Church-door  in  Wittenberg  by 
]\Iartin  Luther  and  the  hoisting  of  the  Liberty  flag  at  the 
Battery  in  New  York  by  the  ]\finut€-men  were  but  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  a  grand  evolution  of  the  human  mind, 
through  which  freedom  of  thought  and  personal  liberty  were 
to  be  secured.  Out  of  these  spiritual  achievements  history 
developed  the  political  and  material  progress  of  our  times: 
Democracy  and  Industrialism. 


CHAPTER  II 

Industrial  Feudalism,  Capitalism,  and  Anarchism 

section  i 

From  House  Industry  to  Collective  Industry.     The  ex- 

ceptioually  progressive  condition  of  tlie  industrial  class  dur- 
ing the  ]\Iiddle  Ages  had  its  source  in  the  Teutonic  insti- 
tution of  the  family,  which  under  the  laws  and  customs  of 
the  guilds  included  all  the  employees  of  the  master.  The 
moral,  social,  and  political  power  of  the  guilds  arose  from 
the  close  affinity  existing  between  employer  and  employee; 
their  relations  had  been  engendered  and  were  sustained  by 
the  union  of  Teutonic  democracy  and  the  humane  in  Chris- 
tianity. 

Unfortunately  for  the  orderly  progress  of  the  civilized 
nations  collective  industry  brought  about  a  fundamental 
change  in  the  relations  of  employer  and  employee.  With 
the  development  of  the  factory  system  the  close  affinity  un- 
til then  existing  between  master  and  wage-earner  ceased. 
The  fact,  that  collective  industry  had  its  origin  in  England, 
prevented  the  reestablisment  of  humane  relations  between 
employer  and  employee  in  any  other  form  suited  to  the  al- 
tered industrial  conditions.  The  English  middle  class,  hav- 
ing secured  through  the  revolution  of  1684  coordinate 
powers  in  the  government  of  the  realm,  held  a  fixed  social 
and  political  position,  and,  therefore,  was  not  under  the 
social  and  political  necessity  of  attaching  the  new  class  of 
laborers  to  its  political  fortunes  in  order  to  enforce  politi- 
cal or  social  recognition  or  to  defend  a  doubtful  status  in 
the  fabric  of  the  State  against  the  aggressions  of  the  crown 
and  of  the  landed  aristocracy.  So  the  English  manufactur- 
ers had  no  incentive  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  their 
laborers.  iMoreover,  the  latter  at  first  were  drawn  almost  ex- 
clusively from  the  lower  class  of  the  rural  population  and 
not  from  skilled  labor.  Thus  it  came  about,  that  collective 
industry,  as  a  social  force,  in  the  earliest  stages  of  its  de- 
velopment was  perverted  into  industrial  feudalism  with  all 
its  social  and  political  evils.     When  later  on  skilled  labor 

321 


322  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

merf?ed  into  the  new  industrial  system,  feudalism  and 
tln'oup:h  its  operation  the  so-called  "iron  law  of  wage"  had 
been  tirmly  estahlislied,  not  only  by  custom  but  also  by  leg- 
islative enactment;  that  is,  the  new  social  power,  industrial 
feudalism  had  so  shaped  lepslation  and  <?iven  legal  status 
to  industrial  spoliation  as  to  make  possible  the  concentration 
of  capital  or  ('apitalism. 

The  politically  independent  and  socially  secure  position  of 
the  Enjjlish  manufacturers,  the  morally,  physically,  and  so- 
cially low  condition  of  their  laborers,  and  the  low  moral  or- 
der of  the  times,  tended  to  reduce  English  factory  labor  to 
the  miserable  condition  of  the  serfs  of  the  Dark  Ages.  The 
employers  became  merciless  despoilers  of  their  employees 
and  these,  a  brutish,  ignorant,  and  slavish  class.  The  one 
lost  all  Christian  consideration  for  their  charge,  in  the  other 
slavishness  tui-ned  into  hate.  By  degrees  the  new  class  of 
laborers  imbibed  all  those  social  errors  which  first  manifest- 
ed themselves  in  the  destruction  of  machinery  and  later  on 
in  the  barbarism  of  strikes. 

Kind  nature  provides  that  from  every  evil  shall  flow 
some  good.  England's  industrial  and  commercial  lords  ac- 
cumulated riches  from  the  workings  of  the  new  industrial 
system  through  the  cruel  sacrifice  of  the  health  and  lives 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  operatives,  but  they  in  turn,  over- 
threw Napoleon 's  gigantic  scheme  of  latinizing  the  civilized 
world  and  establishing  a  universal  military  despotism  on 
the  ruins  of  Teutonic  and  Protestant  culture.  The  concen- 
tration of  capital,  or  Capitalism,  made  possible  the  progress 
in  science  and  enforced  the  production  en  masse;  the  result 
thereof  being  the  elevation  of  the  moral  and  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  masses  and  the  increase  of  their  knowledge  and 
desires  that  now  cause  the  common  people  to  covet  their  in- 
herent rights  and  impel  them  to  independent  political  ac- 
tion for  the  attainment  of  these  rights. 

Through  its  very  nature  as  an  anti-social  force  indus- 
trial feudalism  will  either  utterly  destroy  the  humane  in 
civilization  or  propel  society  rapidly  in  the  direction  of 
socialism.  The  history  of  the  rise,  growth,  and  decline  of 
the  feudalism  of  the  Middle  Ages  will  repeat  itself:  de- 
generation, almost  paralyzation  of  society,  and  then  succes- 
sive revolutions  by  which  humanity  will  throw  off  the  in- 
cubus. It  will  depend  on  the  relations  of  the  masses  to 
the  intellectual  class,  on  the  ethical  progress  attained  by 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       323 

the  latter,  and  on  the  degree  of  culture  or  condition  of 
intellectual  and  moral  degeneracy  of  the  former  whether 
these  radical  chansres  will  take  place  in  an  orderly  or  in  a 
convulsive  manner.  Macaulay  says  of  revolutions  that 
their  violence  is  generally  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
the  maladministration  which  has  produced  tliem.  The 
feudalism  of  the  Middle  Ages  caused  a  most  violent  revo- 
lutionary epoch,  which  commenced  with  the  riots  of  the 
peasants  in  England  and  France  in  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries  and  closed  with  the  French  revolution. 
The  revolutionary  epoch  of  the  future  will  be  caused  by 
the  anti-social  forces  of  the  corporations  and  trusts,  the 
logical  outcome  of  industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism. 
Should  the  intellectual  class  continue  successfully  to  ad- 
vance in  ethical  culture,  these  combinations  will  prove  a 
blessing  to  mankind,  because  they  will  shape  and  accelerate 
its  progress.  Their  organization,  augmentation,  and  abuse 
of  power  will  mfirk  the  successive  stages  in  the  progression 
towards  socialism. 

SECTION   II 

Trusts  and  Corporations.  For  the  present  and  in  the 
immediate  future,  during  the  transitional  stage  of  the 
economic  life  of  the  civilized  peoples,  the  trusts  and  cor- 
porations are  undoubtedly  all-important  factors  in  the  cul- 
tural progress  of  mankind  and  ser\'e  other  useful  purposes. 
For  instance,  they  demonstrate  the  general  demoralization 
and  corruptibility  of  the  middle  class  and  its  intellectual  in- 
ability to  shape  the  economic  policy  of  the  present  and  there- 
fore of  the  future.  They  demonstrate  the  possibility  and 
necessity  of  the  concentration  of  the  means  of  production 
and  of  its  control  by  the  people  as  a  whole.  Their  natural, 
rapid  and  irresistible  growth  will,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  simplify  the  transformation  of  our  economic  system 
and  shorten  the  process  of  removal.  Protestantism  having 
reached  its  culminating  point  as  an  ethical  force,  must  also 
exert  fully  its  social  revolutionary'^  force  on  the  economics 
of  the  civilized  world.  The  development  of  the  trusts  and 
corporations,  by  that  time  probably  of  gigantic  proportion, 
will  enable  the  intellectual  class  with  the  cooperation  of 
the  masses  to  solve  the  social  question  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury even  more  speedily  and  thoroughly  than  it  solved 
through  the  Reformation  the  land-question  of  the  sixteenth 


324  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

eeutury.  The  more  rapid  the  g^rowth  of  tlie  trusts  and  cor- 
porations, the  ^reat<^r  tlieir  political  and  financial  power  and 
ability  to  influence  and  corrupt  legislatures  and  courts  of 
justice,  the  more  rapid  will  be  the  approach  of  another 
revolutionary  epoch,  initiating  the  economic  progress  of  the 
human  race  towards  a  more  just  and  equitable  distribution 
of  property  and  through  it  the  ethical  progress  of  the  fam- 
ily and  of  the  body  politic. 

AVhen  all  brandies  of  industry  shall  have  been  drawn 
into  the  vortex  of  industrialism  in  its  successive,  though 
short  progression,  the  trusts  and  corporation>s  will  control 
the  economic  and,  therefore,  the  political  life  of  the  civilized 
peoples.  Then,  it  will  be  but  a  question  of  time  wdien  the 
most  advanced  nations  wall  be  divided  into  two  classes  only, 
into  the  very  rich  and  the  very  poor.  It  is  true,  that  the 
shares  of  trusts  and  corporations  are  as  yet  widely  dis- 
tributed, but  the  causal  influences  shaping  the  economic 
and  social  conditions  of  modern  times,  make  for  evermore 
concentration  of  capital.  The  shares,  now  widely  distribut- 
ed, will  ultimately  be  concentrated  in  the  possession  of  a 
few  hundred  immensely  wealthy  families  who  through  their 
control  of  the  money  markets  of  the  w'orld  and  of  production 
will  be  the  rulers  of  mankind. 

The  same  causal  influences  will  place  all  arable  land  in 
the  possession  of  the  few.  Then  the  agricultural  population 
will  be  brought  under  a  new  feudal  system  and  forced  into 
the  onward  movement  toward  socialism.  Only  those  entire- 
ly familiar  with  the  immobility  of  the  gi'eat  mass  of  the 
agricultural  population  can  fully  estimate  the  time  required 
to  leaven  the  lump  and  to  prepare  the  farmers  for  the  adop- 
tion of  such  methods  as  will  result  in  the  radical  cure  of  all 
the  ills  now  besetting  them,  against  which  they  vainly  at- 
tempted to  fortif}^  themselves  by  the  cure-alls  of  Populism 
and  the  magic  formula  of  16  to  1. 

The  feudal  system  of  the  Dark  Ages  bred  anarchism, 
leading  to  clerical  absolutism  and  military^  despotism.  In- 
dustrial feudalism  also  breeds  anarchism  and  in  no  country 
more  rapidly  than  in  the  United  States,  because  the  rea- 
soning powers  of  our  people  and  their  moral  feelings  are 
not  yet  properly  adjusted.  Industrial  feudalism  in  itself  is 
inhumanity,  born  of  utter  selfishness  and  the  repudiation  of 
sympathy  with  fellow  men.  If  not  restricted  or  wiped  out 
it  must  destroy  modern  society  in  like  manner  as  military 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNnVERSITIES       325 

feudalism  destroyed  that  of  the  Middle  Ages.  To  con- 
stitute an  organized  social  system  something  more  than 
written  legislation  in  harmony  with  a  nation's  material 
position  is  necessary.  There  must  be  an  unwritten  legisla- 
tion, one  compased  of  usages,  customs,  accepted  ideas  and 
manners,  moral  laws  sanctioned  by  tradition  and  sustained 
by  the  experience  of  generations.  Our  written  legislation 
was  in  harmony  with  our  material  position  of  a  century  ago 
but  we  were  without  a  moral  code  for  guidance  in  our 
social  relations.  It  is  true,  that  an  instrument  of  sublime 
moral  expression  was  drawn  up  at  the  birth  of  the  nation, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But  the  ruling  class  was 
careful  not  to  incorporate  the  principles  of  social  morality 
therein  expressed  into  the  political  code  of  the  new  organism 
and  thereby  into  the  relations  of  every  day  life.  There- 
fore, when  industrial  feudalism  was  grafted  on  our  body 
politic,  it  had  not  the  moral  power  of  resistance  and  pro- 
pulsion to  withstand  or  repel  the  anarchical  influences  flow- 
ing from  the  new  economic  system. 

SECTION   III 

Legalized  Anarchism  and  Official  Corruption.  The  es- 
sence of  anarchism  Ls  a  blind  hostility  to  all  restrictions 
upon  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to  do  what  pleases  him 
or  is  to  his  pecuniary  advantage  without  regard  to  the 
rights  of  other  individuals,  and  it  manifests  itself  in  savage 
attacks  upon  every  agency  which  seeks  to  restrain  him  by 
force,  or  punishment,  or  instills  the  humane  into  the  re- 
lations of  society.  In  our  country  anarchy  is  of  tW'O  kinds: 
legalized  though  unorganized,  and  outlaw'ed  yet  organized. 
About  the  only  difference  between  the  two  is,  that  the 
one  is  practiced  by  a  class  of  people  posing  before  the 
country  as  men  of  principle,  instructing  the  lowly  in  ethics 
and  religion,  arrant  humbugs,  living  a  life  of  deception  and 
crime.  Their  political  agents,  the  "Barnums  of  the  only 
moral  show,"  the  sham  reformers,  and  political  impotents 
are  blossoming  forth  just  at  the  juncture  when  the  people 
attempt  to  rid  themselves  of  official  corruption  and  in- 
corporated oppression.  These  fellows,  the  agents  of  legal- 
ized anarchy,  are  like  the  wasps  that  crawl  out  from  under 
the  clapboards  when  the  sun  begins  to  climb  higher  in  the 
Spring  that  they  may  poison  with  their  sting  the  lifeblood 
of  the  people  and  paralyze  their  political  action  for  real  and 


326  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

final  deliverance  from  economic  slavery.  Like  the  great 
precursor  and  prototype  of  our  modern  capitalists  and  re- 
formers, the  original  Harnum,  who  professed  Christianity 
and  preached  abstinence  but  let  his  New  York  property 
for  the  sale  of  rum  and  lewd  puri)Oses,  tlie  anarchists  of 
the  legalized  order  make  hypocritical  professions  of 
Christian  virtues  to  cover  the  liideousness  of  their  rascality. 
AVhile  outwardly  they  recogni/e  the  necessity  of  government 
and  law,  they  violate  law,  trample  it  under  foot,  and  defy  it. 
This  spirit  of  anarchism  that  is  abroad  in  the  land  to- 
day and  finds  most  violent  expression  in  the  lawless  and 
defiant  acts  of  trusts  and  coporations  and  in  the  corruption 
and  slavishness  of  their  political  tools,  is  driving  us  forward 
toward  the  point  reached  by  Israel,  when  they  had  no  king, 
and  every  one  did  what  was  right  in  his  own  eye.  (Judges 
xxi,  25).  Is  it  not  anarchy  pure  and  simple,  when  the 
governments  of  cities  are  corrupted  by  the  greediness  of 
corporations  and  business  men  who  by  bribing  officials  gain 
advantages  over  competitors  or  steal  franchises?  Is  it  not 
anarchy,  pure  and  simple,  when  trusts  and  corporations 
buy  up  legislatures  and  Congress?  Is  it  not  the  worst 
form  of  anarchy,  when  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  Senators  and 
Representatives,  arrange  a  Sugar  Bill,  so  that  the  Sugar 
Trust  can  rob  the  people  of  the  country  of  millions?  Is 
it  not  anarchy,  when  the  President  of  the  United  States 
secretly  negotiates  through  his  former  law-partner  with  a 
former  client  a  loan  by  which  the  people  lose  millions 
and  foreign  bankers  and  other  people  make  millions? 
When  a  railroad  company  combines  with  the  coal  trust, 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  every  State  through  which  the  road 
passes,  for  the  sake  of  forcing  coal  up,  and  so  causing  un- 
told suffering  and  death  among  the  poor — that  is  anarchy. 
When  railroads  are  bonded  for  many  times  the  cost  of  their 
construction — that  is  anarchy.  When  railroad  corporations 
are  bankrupted  b.y  the  rascality  of  directors  and  stock- 
jobbers and  are  turned  over  to  the  U.  S.  Courts  and  these 
attempt  to  coerce  the  employees  under  the  false  charge 
of  contempt  of  Court  that  the  jobbers  and  rascals  may  re- 
cuperate their  fortunes  by  reducing  wages  below  the  living 
point — that  is  anarchy.  When  the  public  lands  are  stolen, 
when  with  the  connivance  of  government  officials  the  public 
forests   are   ruthlessly   devastated   by   millionaire   lumber 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       327 

thieves  and  thus  vast  regions,  the  home  of  millions  of 
farmers,  are  made  sterile  or  laid  waste  by  inundation — 
that  is  anarchy,  a  form  of  anarchy  which  it  is  time  for 
the  American  people  to  consider.  When  steel  and  armor 
manufacturers  secretly  connive  with  officials  to  cheat  the 
g:overnment  by  furnishing  defective  plates  for  our  navy, 
thus  endangering  the  lives  of  our  sailors  and  the  very 
life  of  the  nation,  and  when  the  President  reduces  the  fine 
imposed  for  their  treasonable  action,  while  they  witness 
unconcernedly  the  fierce  indignation  of  a  defrauded  people 
and  smile  at  the  condemnation  of  their  treasonable  practices 
— that  is  anarchy.  When  Carnegie,  Frick  &  Co.  and  other 
corporations  can  hire  bands  of  mercenaries  and  assassins  to 
coerce  labor — that  is  anarchy  of  the  kind  which  the  feudal 
system  of  the  ]\Iiddle  Ages  brought  forth  when  bands  of 
mercenaries  established  sword-law  as  the  government  of 
nations.  When  the  President  orders  United  States  troops 
against  the  protest  of  the  local  authorities  fully  qualified 
to  suppress  violence  and  protect  property,  to  suppress  a 
strike  for  the  benefit  of  a  monopoly  and  acts  with  an 
impetuosity  betokening  the  zeal  of  the  paid  attorney  anx- 
ious to  serve  his  masters,  the  trusts  and  corporations,  and 
when  at  the  same  time  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  same 
monopoly  a  Judge  of  the  United  States  issues  an  order 
taking  away  the  rights  and  liberties  of  organized  labor,  an 
order  which  it  is  afterwards  learned  he  did  not  write,  but 
the  attorney  of  a  corporation  being  a  party  to  the  contro- 
versy— that  is  anarchy.  And  when  though  a  Committee 
of  Congress  declares  the  order  to  be  an  outrageous  viola- 
tion of  law  and  justice,  this  same  Judge  is  yet  not  removed 
from  office — that  is  the  very  essence  of  anarchy. 

Outlawed  or  organized  anarchy  may  be  more  coarse  and 
loud,  but  the  worst  form  of  anarchy  is  that  which  de- 
liberately overrides  law,  or  corrupts  it  at  the  very  fountain. 
Without  permanently  established  social  institutions,  and 
absorbed  most  of  all  in  the  mere  pursuit  of  material  wealth, 
the  people  of  the  United  States  permitted  legalized  anarch- 
ism to  absorb  the  functions  of  the  government.  While 
Capital  is  not  worshiped  as  a  god,  because  the  spread  of 
intelligence  and  the  prevalence  of  Christianity  forbid  it, 
yet  the  spirit  of  adventure  prevalent  in  this  new  country 
set  up  the  "almighty  dollar"  as  the  only  thing  worthy  of 
an  American  adoration. 


328  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

SECTION    IV 

Organized   Anarchism,   Its   Causes,   and   Rome.     It  Is 

disgraceful  that  the  advances  of  humanity  toward  a  better 
condition  should  be  marked  by  violence  and  disorder,  but 
the  disgrace  belongs  principally  to  those  who,  by  oppressing 
and  bnitalizing  mankind,  render  excesses  but  natural,  and 
one  might  almost  say  proper.  INIan's  nature  does  not 
change.  Therefore,  in  reflecting  upon  the  fickle  and  worth- 
less advancing  character  of  humanity,  one  wonders,  how 
long  it  will  be  before  another  excess  of  revolutionary  rage 
and  hostility  to  class  rule  will  produce  another  defacement 
and  demolition  such  as  the  past  centuries  have  witnessed. 
The  signs  are  multiplying  that  the  subversive  forces  which 
are  fermenting  under  the  surface  of  the  existing  order  of 
things  in  every  country  of  Europe  are  also  at  work  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  not  to  be  expected,  that  the  common 
people,  least  of  all  Americans,  will  follow  the  examples  of 
the  weaklings  in  Ireland  who,  at  a  cei*tain  crisis  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  Erin,  as  is  somewhere  recorded  in  song  or  story, 
committed  suicide  to  save  themselves  from  slaughter. 

Anarchy  above  breeds  anarchy  below.  This  fact  dis- 
closes the  secret  why  organized  anarchism,  invented  by  a 
few  cranks  and  outcasts,  has  gained  proselytes  or  recruited 
unconscious  accomplices  among  the  working  people  and 
even  among  the  enlightened  classes.  People,  who  practice 
murder  for  the  sake  of  murder,  and  destruction  for  the 
sake  of  destruction,  without  saying  and  without  knowing 
what  their  ideal  will  be  when  they  shall  have  destroyed 
everything,  whose  watchword  is  the  return  to  savage  life, 
have  become  a  sort  of  recognized  power  in  the  Latin 
countries  of  Europe.  That  this  sect  has  made  no  great 
advance  in  this  country,  shows  the  immense  reserve  of 
honest  purpose  that  exists  among  the  American  people  and 
that  is  bound  to  assure  under  proper  guidance  the  orderly 
solution  of  the  social  question.  There  is  still  a  vast 
amount  of  unsuspected  integrity  in  the  Teutonic  race.  It 
is  out  of  that  material  that  the  late  victories  of  the  American 
people  at  the  polls  were  won  and  it  will  be  that  out  of 
which  the  victory  over  the  anti-social  forces  of  industrial 
feudalism  and  Capitalism  will  be  won.  There  is  integrity 
enough  in  this  country  to  effect  a  peaceable  social  revolu- 
tion. In  a  short  space  of  time,  as  historj^  measures  it,  it 
will  be  far  easier  to  arouse  virtuous  enthusiasm  sufficient 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       329 

for  an  entire  overthrow  of  a  false  economic  system,  transmit- 
ted to  us  from  the  stone  ages,  than  to  arouse  it  merely  for 
a  partial  overthrow,  that  of  evil  rulership. 

The  unnatural  social  conditions  now  existing  in  this 
naticn  have  directly  and  indirectly  led  to  lawlessness,  Wood- 
shed, the  interruption  of  business,  and  to  all  manner  of  mis- 
fortune for  the  people.  Those  who  enacted  lawlessness  and 
bloodshed  were  hired  mercenaries  and  the  rowdy  element, 
congregated  in  all  centers  of  industries,  the  brutish 
Irish  and  Italian  element  in  the  labor  organizations  that 
follow  the  same  old  Irish  guerilla  evicted-tenant  system  and 
reenact  the  Sicilian  vespers.  Both  elements  being  under  the 
absolute  control  of  the  Romish  priests,  these  might  easily 
have  prevented  the  outrages  committed  in  the  name  of 
honest  labor.  But  the  Roman  Church  had  and  has  a  direct 
interest  in  surrounding  the  advances  of  labor  in  this  country 
with  anarchical  conditions  that  the  American  plutocracy 
may  receive  the  impression,  and  correctly  so,  that  Rome 
alone  can  guarantee  the  continuance  of  the  present  order 
of  society.  She  intends  to  use  the  anarchical  tendencies  of 
the  times  and  the  base  spirit  of  the  "Molly  Maguires"  to 
intimidate  the  American  people  in  like  manner  and  to  like 
purpose  as  she  has  used  the  same  spirit  in  Ireland  to  coerce 
the  English  Government.  It  is  no  longer  a  secret  that  the 
Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  after  the  death  of  its  Prot- 
estant and  American  founder  was  made  an  instrument  of 
Rome  and  that  its  absolute  master,  Mr.  Powderly,  was  only 
the  agent  of  the  Jesuits.  The  recognition  of  this  truth  led 
to  the  organization  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
Through  the  subserviency  and  moral  cowardice  of  its 
Hebrew  leader  the  new  organization  was  also  made  an  in- 
strument of  Romish  policy.  The  American  labor  and 
farmer  organizations  of  the  future,  if  ever  they  shall  ap- 
proach or  effect  the  orderly  solution  of  the  social  question 
in  this  country,  must  exclude  all  elements  whose  sphere 
of  thought  and  of  political  action  is  not  within  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Teutonic  race  and  whose  moral  being  is  not 
founded  in  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  American  Farmer  and  "Workingman 

The  conservative  action  of  American  labor,  industrial 
and  agricultural,  is  something  wonderful  considering  the 
provocations  and  abuses  to  which  the  workmen  and  farmers 
are  exposed.  It  cannot  be  denied,  that  industrial  feudalism 
and  Capitalism  are  nowhere  less  considerate  than  in  the 
great  American  Republic.  The  farmer  is  the  serf  of  the 
corporations  and  usurers  and  receives  relatively  less  com- 
pensation for  his  toil,  that  is  for  the  products  of  the  farm, 
than  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  in  any  other  civilized  country. 
His  interests  are  made  absolutely  subservient  to  those  of 
the  moneyed  powers  and  of  their  servants,  the  political 
mountebanks  and  quacks  who  administer  the  government 
and  justice  and  legislate  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  Interna- 
tional Capitalism.  Considering  the  amount  of  work  ex- 
acted from  the  American  mechanic  and  laborer  and  the 
extraordinary  drafts  made  on  his  vitality,  the  uncertainty 
of  employment,  the  long  periods  of  idleness  caused  by  the 
anarchical  condition  of  production,  landlordism  and  the  in- 
humane policy  of  leaving  the  aged  and  exhausted  to  shift 
for  themselves  or  to  become  objects  of  charity,  the  wage 
of  the  American  mechanic  and  laborer  is  the  lowest  of  all 
industrial  workers  in  the  civilized  w^orld  and  his  condition 
the  least  desirable. 

All  the  evils  of  industrial  feudalism :  inhumanity  toward 
fellowmen,  the  employment  of  women  and  children,  the 
substitution  of  cheaper  female  labor  for  male  labor  with  its 
anarchical  and  destructive  tendencies  on  the  family  and  the 
entire  moral  and  social  life  of  the  people,  are  in  no  other 
civilized  country  so  pronounced  as  in  the  land  of  unchecked 
competition,  unchecked  legal  spoliation,  and  unchecked  dem- 
agogy, though  only  fifty  years  ago  the  home  of  the  most 
splendidly  organized  democracy  of  historical  times.  How- 
ever strong  the  reserve  of  honest  purpose  may  be,  under 
such  conditions  labor  must  ultimately  drift  into  tumultuoas 
channels  entirely  removed  from  religious  and  conservative 
influences.     Sentimental  Christianity,  which  banks  every- 

330 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       331 

thing  in  the  future  and  nothing  in  the  present  and  as  the 
servant  of  ]\Iammon  is  the  curse  of  our  people,  cannot  ef- 
fectually dam  the  anarchical  waters  that  will  slowly  but 
surely  destroy  the  foundation  of  society.  It  is  a  hard  mat- 
ter to  make  a  good  Christian  of  a  hungry  man.  No  matter 
how  long  he  has  belonged  to  the  Church,  how  he  shouts  in 
the  church,  if  he  goes  home  hungry  and  finds  nothing  to 
eat,  his  family  in  distress,  without  prospects  and  a  future, 
he  will  before  long  find  the  specter  of  anarchy  less  and  less 
frightful,  and  the  thought  of  an  appeal  to  destructive 
measures  less  and  less  abhorrent.  The  kind  of  religion  we 
need  is  one  which  will  direct  the  masses  in  their  orderly 
progress  to  economic  independence.  At  present  the  work- 
man and  the  farmer  of  the  land  are  like  the  impotent  and 
withered  of  whom  the  Bible  tells  us,  stretched  around  the 
pool  of  Bethesda,  waiting  for  the  moving  of  the  waters. 

The  opportunities  of  life  under  the  present  conditions 
are  not  equal,  and  changes  are  needed  to  forestall  the 
anarchical  tendencies  of  current  industrial  life.  The  work- 
ingman  and  the  farmer  are  now  held  in  bondage  by  their 
surroundings  and  driven  hither  and  thither  by  the  scourges 
of  industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism,  just  as  much  as  if 
they  were  actually  slaves,  although  the  fetters  and  the  whip 
are  invisible  and  intangible.  A  sorry  close  this  is  for  our 
republic  after  having  started  with  such  bright  hopes  and 
boundless  energy;  after  having  passed  through  so  many 
great  periods ;  but  when  money  is  made  king  and  god,  when 
feudalism  and  plutocracy  surmount  justice  and  democracy, 
when  property  is  valued  above  man,  a  terrible  denouement 
is  inevitable. 

If  the  religious  and  ethical  forces  are  not  able  to  repel 
the  spirit  of  anarchism  in  our  land,  the  beginning  of  the 
end  is  surely  at  hand.  The  sores  of  Lazarus  have  a  poison 
in  them  which  causes  all  this  ferment  in  society  of  which 
the  weak  in  mind  and  soul  despair.  Surely,  this  ferment 
is  nothing  new.  It  has  been  at  work  for  centuries,  only  we 
now  are  more  conscious  of  it.  It  is  only  the  latest  chapter 
in  an  ancient  tale  of  wrong.  In  those  dumb  ages  when 
there  was  a  cover  of  silence  and  suppression  on  the  caldron 
the  masses  suffered  in  fear  and  in  silence  and  only  the  God 
of  justice  recorded  their  sufferings  against  the  oppressors. 
When  the  translation  of  the  Bible  revealed  to  the  masses 
God's  mercy  and  love,  that  they  too  were  the  children  of 


332  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

God  and  eiititk-d  to  his  bounties  and  blessings,  when  the 
Reformation  phinted  bt'side  the  ehureh  tlie  sehool  and  made 
these  the  foundations  for  a  new  civilization,  the  masses  ap- 
preliended  for  the  first  time  the  rights  and  opportunities 
granted  to  all  men  by  their  Creator  and  sealed  with  the 
blood  of  the  Redeemer. 

The  origin  of  the  bitter  hostility  of  labor  to  capital,  of 
the  emj)loyee  to  the  employer,  which  to  the  casual  observer 
of  men  and  things  appears  to  be  one  of  the  most  unfortunate 
conditions  of  the  time,  is  really  traceable  to  the  improved 
condition  of  the  masses,  to  a  better  knowledge  of  their 
rights,  of  Christian  truths,  and  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
is,  therefore,  rather  a  sign  and  guarantee  of  the  progress 
of  the  human  race  than  of  a  relapse  into  barbarism.  For- 
merly the  immense  majority  of  men  knew  only  their  suffer- 
iuiis,  their  wants,  and  their  desires.  They  are  beginning 
to  know  their  opportunities  and  their  power.  However, 
since  with  many  the  chief  end  of  man  seems  to  have  become 
keeping  the  body  alive,  and  making  it  as  comfortable  as  pos- 
sible, there  appears  this  danger,  that  the  leaven  may  become 
so  wholly  political  and  material  as  to  entirely  exclude  the 
ethical.  This  is  ominous  not  so  much  to  the  present 
structure  of  society,  which  cannot  much  longer  with- 
stand the  leveling  process  of  the  irresistible  progress 
in  philosophical  thought  and  scientific  research,  as  to  the 
organization  of  the  society  of  the  future  because  it  would 
set  upon  it  the  stamp  of  materialism  and  therewith  foredoom 
it  to  destruction. 

It  is  only  by  aggravating  the  wrongs  of  men  that  what 
are  called  the  rights  of  man  become  turbulent  and  danger- 
ous. Then  only  will  they  syllogize  unwelcome  truths.  It 
is  man's  inhumanity  to  man  which  causes  the  insurrection 
of  the  masses.  When  society  neglects  to  consider  the 
problems  which  are  made  the  occasion  for  social  disturb- 
ances, when  it  sets  itself  in  a  blind  idolatry  of  the  present 
against  all  and  every  progi*ess,  when  society  manifests  a 
regal  incapacity  for  apprehending  that  the  world  is  moving, 
then  it  is  but  natural  that  the  sufferers  from  existing  evils 
proclaim  as  their  sole  aim  the  ruin  of  that  which  exists,  and 
show  impatience  with  the  thought  of  a  peaceful  socialization 
of  the  community.  The  veiy  fact  that  organized  anarch- 
ism is  at  all  possible  in  Christian  communities  and  can 
preach  revolution  and  overthi-ow  and  murder,  refusing  to 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       333 

give  ear  to  any  peaceable  reform  or  social  transformation, 
is  convincing  proof  of  an  existing  wrong.  Society  treats 
the  lowly  in  the  imcliaritable  spirit  of  the  pharisee  and 
merchant  who  passed  with  haughty  mien  the  unfortunate 
one  lying  helpless  by  the  wayside.  Its  willful  neglect  to 
recognize  the  supremacy  of  the  social  question,  to  study  all 
its  bearings,  and  to  approach  its  solution  in  the  spirit  of 
good  will  and  guardianship,  is  responsible  for  the  accumula- 
tion of  all  those  destructive  forces  that,  as  history  teaches, 
may  finally  sweep  our  civilization  into  a  cataclysm  of  blood. 

While  we  cannot  prevent  the  crumbling  away  of  systems, 
we  can  prevent  the  scattering  of  moral  forces.  It  seems 
that  as  a  nation  of  moral  beings  hastening  to  eternal  destiny 
we  have  sadly  neglected  our  opportunities  to  infuse  the 
humane  into  our  civilization.  Have  we  carefully  considered 
the  social  problems?  Have  we  as  dutiful  citizens  candidly 
and  courageously  discussed  these  problems  sincerely  to 
ascertain  what  wrongs  exist  and  what  remedies  should  be 
applied?  We  have  not.  W^e  have  extolled  the  virtues  of 
plutocracy  ad  nauseam,  and  have  stigmatized  the  grumb- 
ling of  the  masses  as  the  vaporing  of  drunken,  rioting, 
law-defying  anarchists,  the  very  offsprings  of  hell,  or 
have  ridiculed  it  as  the  hysterical  emanation  of  illbalanced 
hotheads  and  fanatics  not  worthy  of  consideration  in  this 
age  of  materialism.  We  have  treated  the  social  question 
as  a  hobby,  a  philosophical  w^him,  something  merely  of  the 
nature  of  an  academic  like  that  of  a  theory.  Until  now,  we 
have  with  the  carelessness  and  capriciousness  of  the  spoiled 
child  of  fortune,  given  no  thought  to  the  lessons  of  history 
and  have  answered  all  complaints  of  the  masses  with  the  con- 
\action  of  ignorance  and  in  the  spirit  of  levity.  Marie 
Antoinette,  Queen  of  France,  who  when  the  people  sur- 
rounded the  royal  palace  and  asked  for  bread,  said:  "Why 
don't  they  eat  cake!"  Shortly  after  the  Queen's  head 
rolled  into  the  basket. 

The  newspapers  as  a  whole,  almost  hopelessly  immersed 
as  they  are  in  sensationalism  and  party  politics,  have  allied 
themselves  with  legalized  anarchy  and  meet  every  movement 
in  the  direction  of  socialism  and  the  most  conservative  dis- 
cussion thereof  with  ridicule  and  the  most  bitter  abuse, 
or  lacking  courage  and  all  the  elements  of  appreciation 
necessary  to  treat  fairly  this  great  social  and  historical 
problem,  refuse  to  subject  the  old  social  constiiiction  to  a 


334  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

searcliint?  study  and  seek  for  tlie  generative  roots  of  the 
evils  of  society.  The  Church  has  held  aloof  from  the  labor 
movement,  ignoring  it.  altogether  or  condemning  it.  Con- 
sequently the  masses  have  come  to  feel  that  the  State,  the 
Church  and  tlie  press,  and  all  the  agencies  and  powers  of 
society  are  allied  with  International  Capital  against  them 
and  their  cause. 

The  inarticulate  protest  of  tlie  masses  against  the  wrongs 
inflicted  upon  any  one  of  their  brethren  has  furnished  to 
legalized  anarchy,  to  the  sybarites  and  shirks  of  society, 
and  to  their  political  tools  in  public  office  and  on  the  bench, 
a  pretext  for  needless  persecution  and  unnecessary  viola- 
tion of  the  personal  liberty  of  citizens.  Tlie  social  results 
of  industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism  which  are  rapidly 
culminating  in  this  country  in  the  two  extremes  of  vast 
consolidated  wealth  and  absolute  poverty,  move  the  laborer 
to  speak  of  himself  as  if  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  fixed 
social  gradations  of  an  aristocratic  system,  while  he  is  in 
reality  a  member  of  a  society  that  provides  in  the  ballot  a 
remedy  for  all  these  social  evils  now  besetting  him.  The  de- 
pendent economic  position  of  the  laborer  and  fanner  is  in 
fact  due  to  their  own  folly  and  ignorance  which  keep  them 
in  the  thrall  of  political  parties  owned  by  International  Cap- 
italism and  of  an  economic  system  which  gradually  has 
robbed  the  one  of  every  opportunity  to  become  independent 
and  will  eventually  rob  the  other  of  his  fai*m.  The  fact  is, 
the  masses  have  not  yet  emptied  the  cup  of  bitterness  to 
the  dregs,  since  legalized  anarchy  has  not  yet  filled  the  meas- 
ure of  defiance  of  law  and  virtue,  of  democracy  and  human- 
ity, but  this  evil  culmination  is  not  far  off.  Washing- 
ton said  of  the  people :  ' '  They  must  feel  before  they  will 
see.  When  that  happens,  they  are  aroused  to  action." 
The  initiative  towards  social  reform  that  will  lead  to  a 
rich  and  high  toned  civilization  and  solve  all  the  political 
problems  of  the  civilized  world,  must  be  developed  by  the 
best  of  the  people,  not  by  the  people,  because  the  people  are 
never  ripe.  It  is  not  the  insurrections  of  ignorance  that 
advance  the  human  race  but  the  revolts  of  intelligence. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Socialism 
section  i 

In  the  United  States.  Until  now  we  have  in  our  country 
only  noticed  the  bubbles  and  scum  thrown  up  by  the 
universal  fermentation  of  human  thought  on  economics. 
The  extraordinary  blessings  by  Providence  bestowed  upon 
our  people,  have  until  lately  made  easy  the  problem  of 
making  life  rich  and  fruitful  in  varied  material  achieve- 
ments. Consequently,  our  spiritual  life  has  been  barren  and 
monotonous,  and  we  have  paid  little  or  no  attention  to 
nature 's  laws  as  to  spiritual  and  economic  progress,  or  to  the 
fast  approaching  period  in  our  national  economic  life 
when  the  storehouses  of  nature  must  cease  to  overflow  and 
the  real  struggle  for  existence  must  commence.  It  is  only 
a  few  years  since  the  generality  of  our  nation  to  which 
the  necessity  of  a  change,  before  it  can  be  attempted,  must 
first  be  brought  home,  lias  begun  to  pay  any  attention 
to  the  social  question,  though  it  had  already  power- 
fully stirred  the  nations  of  Europe.  Yet,  what  immense 
progress  the  public  has  made  during  that  short  space  both 
as  to  ideas  and  in  appreciation  of  the  importance  and 
urgency  of  solving  the  social  problem.  A  conflict  of  ages, 
the  causes  of  which  had  defied  the  moral  forces  of  the 
world  and  those  of  Christianity,  seems  now  to  be  near  its 
termination.  The  powers,  so  immensely  increased  under 
the  reign  of  industrial  feudalism  and  of  Capitalism 
resulting  from  the  cooperation  of  the  same  sets  of  causes 
which  have  led  to  the  destruction  of  ancient  civilization, 
to  the  Reformation,  and  to  every  evolution  in  the  progress 
of  the  human  race,  must  in  very  short  time  lead  to  the 
solution  of  all  the  riddles  of  political  and  social  economy 
which  have  puzzled  and  agitated  mankind  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

Many  European  authorities  on  archseology  a^ee  that 
ancient  history  and  culture  originated  on  the  American 
continent.     It  is  more  than  probable  that  in  the  United 

335 


336  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

States  the  first  practical  advances  in  the  direction  of  tlie 
economic  emancipation  of  the  masses  and  of  a  more  com- 
plete and  scientific  socialization  will  be  made.  All  the 
conditions  for  such  an  advancement  in  the  direction  of 
socialism  are  present.  Where  the  majority  rules  through 
self-governing  groups  of  men,  the  isolating  features  of 
industrial  feudalism  and  the  concentric  influences  of 
Capitalism  must  either  give  way  to  the  economic  and 
social  necessities  of  the  majority,  or  these  antisocial  forces 
will  be  annihilated  by  an  appeal  to  arms.  If  the  author  of 
this  book  reads  correctly  the  signs  on  our  political  horizon 
and  interprets  rightly  the  murmur  of  the  democratic  masses 
against  the  things  that  are,  nor  through  overmuch  faith  in 
the  intelligence  of  the  American  democracy,  errs  in  his  con- 
clusions, then  it  is  a  certainty  that  the  majority  will  con- 
tinue to  rule,  because  they  belong  to  a  race  that  is  not  afraid 
to  face  deep,  even  fundamental  changes  and  new  responsi- 
bilities. As  to  questions  of  economics  and  of  social  prog- 
ress there  has,  as  yet,  been  no  appeal  to  the  mind  of  the 
American  people,  to  their  calm,  dispassionate,  sympathetic 
judgment.  All  such  questions  involving  fundamental 
changes  in  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  society  and  its 
organization,  must  first  become  the  subject  of  earnest  dis- 
cussion not  only  by  the  parties  directly  interested,  but  by 
practically  the  whole  of  the  society  whose  every  member  is 
invested  wuth  sovereignty  through  the  ballot. 

When  the  public  intelligence  has  been  reached  and  a 
public  judgment  formed,  then  the  majority  through  their 
orderly  elected  representatives,  will  decree  all  the  charges 
necessary  in  our  social  structure  for  another  advance  in  the 
direction  of  socialism,  creating  conditions  in  harmony  with 
the  cultural  advance  of  the  generality  of  the  nation.  And 
this  process  will  be  repeated  as  often  as  the  intellectual 
class  becomes  convinced  that  the  necessary  advance  in 
general  culture  has  been  made.  The  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  decided  long  ago  that  the  regulation  by 
the  community  through  its  legislative  and  executive  agents 
of  all  industries  which  to  any  large  extent  affect  its  well 
being,  is  one  of  the  national  government's  constitutional 
rights.  In  the  suit  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  owning 
gas  works  in  the  City  of  St.  Paul  praying  for  an  injunc- 
tion forbidding  the  construction  and  operation  of  municipal 
gas  works,  the  U.  S,  Courts  decided,  that  the  city  might 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       337 

build  a  railroad  across  the  State  and  carry  everybody  to 
and  fro  upon  it  free  of  charge  at  the  public  expense. 
From  the  government's  ownership  of  mines,  railroads,  etc., 
to  its  ownership  of  all  means  of  production  will  be  but  one 
continuous  process  of  evolution.  This  process  must  be  regu- 
lated by  the  moral  progress  of  the  nation  to  guard  against 
the  abuse  of  power,  leading  to  the  creation  of  chaotic  con- 
ditions and  hence  of  tumultuous  despotism.  That  such  will 
be  the  development  of  American  society  careful  observers  of 
the  drift  of  public  opinion  and  of  the  march  of  events  in  the 
history  of  the  American  people  can  surely  not  doubt.  To 
the  ruling  class  this  feature  of  the  progress  of  our  civiliza- 
tion gives  no  comfort,  but  it  is  useless  for  them  to  shut  their 
eyes  to  it.  Should  the  trusts  and  corporations,  and  the 
moneyed  powers  generally,  attempt  to  oppose  by  violence, 
fraud,  or  the  corruption  of  the  agencies  of  the  government, 
the  onward  movement  of  the  American  people  in  the  direc- 
tion of  socialism  and,  therefore,  the  will  of  the  immense  ma- 
jority, they  would  become  guilty  of  insurrection  and  draw 
dovm  upon  themselves  a  more  cruel  fate  than  that  which 
overwhelmed  the  slavocracy  of  the  South;  or  should  they 
seize  the  government  by  force  or  by  the  jugglery  of  8  to  7, 
they  would  cause  a  revolution  that  might  rival  in  ferocity 
and  destnictiveness  the  one  of  1789  in  France.  In  either 
case  the  onward  movement  of  the  masses  would  be  accelerat- 
ed, unless  the  militarv  aspect  of  such  a  violent  movement 
should  become  a  possibly  deciding  factor  or  Rome  should 
gain  the  mastery  over  the  American  people. 

SECTION  n 

International  Socialism.  It  is  vain  to  organize  the  un- 
known, that  which  is  hidden  in  the  future,  to  reduce  it  to 
an  infallible  system,  and  to  lean  on  its  miraculous  effects, 
since  nature  alone,  through  the  progress  in  scientific  re- 
search and  in  ethics,  will  mold  the  society  of  coming 
generations.  Therefore  all  progress  in  the  direction  of 
socialism  depends  on  the  advancement  of  the  intellectual 
class  in  science  and  ethics.  So  long  as  the  Socialistic  Labor 
Party  refuses  to  accept  these  truths,  so  long  its  efforts  to 
to  secure  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  masses 
and  a  fundamental  change  in  society  will  prove  abortive. 
Though  the  social  question  of  the  day  from  its  origin  in 
industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism,  is  of  an  international 


3.18  CASSOCK  ANT)  SWORD 

character,  yet,  the  forces  of  international  socialism  in  its 
present  fonn  and  substance  are  essentially  as  hostile  to 
ethical  culture  as  they  are  to  property  because  they  are  of 
a  cosmopolitan  character  and  as  such  must  assail  the  moral 
position  of  the  most  advanced  race  and  of  all  its  national 
i)ranche&.  They  are  hostile  to  what  civilized  men  call 
patriotism  and,  therefore,  will  never  be  able  to  deliver  their 
assaults  with  destructive  effect.  As  a  race  believing  in 
lilK'rty  and  conscience,  one  and  inseparable,  the  Teutons 
will  and  must  oppose  every  class  movement  that  is  not  in 
harmony  with  their  traditions  and  ethics,  or  sets  itself 
against  the  intelliprence,  and  hence  practically  applied  to 
the  functions  of  society  must  assail  and  eventually  destroy 
the  unit  of  Teutonic  civilization,  the  family.  It  is  a  law 
of  nature  that  the  moral  character  of  all  social  institutions 
cannot  rise  above  that  of  their  efficient  cause.  Therefore, 
the  moral  character  of  the  forces  of  international  socialism 
cannot  rise  above  that  of  the  element  of  lowest  moral  per- 
ception. The  civilization  of  the  Teutonic  race  should,  there- 
fore, have  to  be  reduced  to  the  moral  tone  of  that  of  the 
Celtic  or  Slavic  races.  For  instance,  the  family  not  being 
originally  the  foundation  of  the  social  order  of  the  Celtic 
peoples,  having  been  ingrafted  by  the  Church  as  an  ordi- 
nance of  the  Lord,  it  must  cease  to  be  an  essential  element 
in  the  new  social  order  whenever  the  Celtic  peoples  cease 
to  believe  in  the  Lord,  and,  therefore,  in  the  sacrament  of 
marriage. 

According  to  this  law  of  nature  the  spirit  of  brutish- 
ness,  with  which  the  lowest  ranks  of  men  are  imbued, 
is  dominant  in  the  councils  of  the  Socialistic  Labor  Party 
and  directs  its  political  action,  though  for  purposes  of 
parade  it  is  skillfully  concealed  by  a  thin  veneer  of 
intellectuality  and  culture,  or  an  arrogant  assumption 
of  superiority  in  moral  philosophy  and  the  science  of  ec- 
onomics, of  which  the  imperfectly  educated  masses  can 
have  no  conception  whatever  and  the  leaders,  risen  from  the 
ranks,  but  a  confused  knowledge.  The  very  few  leaders 
drawn  from  the  intellectual  class,  in  their  isolated  and 
rather  painful  position,  must,  to  keep  up  appearances,  have 
recourse  to  the  arts  and  tricks  of  the  demagogue  or  else 
give  up,  because  they  can  exercise  no  moral  influence  over 
the  rank  and  file  of  a  party  which  in  and  by  its  doctrine 
that  all  wealth  is  created  by  crude  labor,  appeals  in  fact, 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES      330 

however  earofuUy  it  may  strive  to  hide  this,  solely  to  the 
lowest  passions  of  the  lowest  order  of  men. 

This  spirit  of  bnitishness,  which  since  the  organization 
of  the  society  has  been  its  bane,  dictated  the  resolution  by 
which  the  leaders  of  the  S.  L.  P.  refused  the  cooperation 
of  a  Socialistic  organization  of  students  of  the  University 
of  Berlin.  It  is  unfortunate  that  these  leaders,  mostly 
Eastern  Hebrews,  have  hardly  any  perception  of  the  soul- 
quickening  ethical  forces  of  the  Teutonic  race  and,  there- 
fore, are  entirely  unfitted  and  unable  to  direct  or  influence 
the  transformation  of  its  social  structure. 

SECTION  m 

Karl  Marx  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle.  Karl  Marx,  though 
born  in  the  Jewish  faith,  was  never  a  Hebrew  in  heart  and 
soul,  because  his  cradle  stood  in  the  western  part  of 
Germany  in  which  the  German  cultural  life  had  for  genera- 
tions gi-adually  absorbed  the  Jewish  population.  When 
]\[arx  laid  doA\ii  the  scientific  principles  of  a  new  economic 
system,  he  was  in  heart  and  soul  a  Teuton  and  not  a  Jew. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  in  his  moral  being  and  in  men- 
tal discipline  of  that  school  of  German  philosophers  who 
may  properly  be  called  Progressive  Protestants  and  who  in- 
itiated and  carried  forward  the  great  intellectual  movement 
that  culminated  in  the  unity  of  Germany,  and  gave  birth 
to  social  science  and  scientific  research.  In  moral  composi- 
tion and  in  knowledge  Karl  Marx  towered  far  above 
Ferdinand  Lassalle,  the  dime  novel  hero  of  the  Socialistic 
Labor  Party. 

Lassalle  was  born  of  rich  Jewish  trades-people  in  1825 
in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  Germany,  where  the  Jews 
were  not  formally  emancipated  until  1848.  Of  intellec- 
tual greatness,  aristocratic  desires  and  inclinations,  and 
an  inordinate  ambition,  the  consciousness  of  his  position 
as  a  Jew  in  a  society  possessed  of  mediieval  prejudices 
became  the  bane  of  his  life.  Having  departed  from 
the  ark  without  being  able  to  part  with  the  spiritual  im- 
pressions received  in  youth  from  clanish  environments  and 
talmudical  teachings,  without  moral  stamina  and  fixed 
principles,  he  became  a  politician  with  whom  the  end 
justified  the  means,  and  a  leader  of  the  masses,  that  he 
might  barter  for  royal  favors  the  influence  acquired  over 
them.     To  gratify  the  passions  of  lust  and  ambition  to  enter 


340  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

the  drawing  room  of  aristocratic  society,  he  offered  his  con- 
version to  Catholicism  as  the  price  for  the  hand  of  a  lewd 
and  voluptuous  woman  of  the  aristocracy.  Lassalle's  bril- 
liant personality,  perhaps,  too,  the  very  immorality  of  his 
short  but  eventful  life,  impressed  the  masses  deeply,  but 
also,  and  unfortunately  so,  placed  on  the  Socialistic  move- 
ment of  continental  Europe  the  impress  of  social  immoral- 
ity, of  political  demagogism,  and  of  Hebrew  scepticism 
and  cosmopolitanism,  which  are  not  creative  but  dissolving 
agencies  in  the  life  of  nations. 

SECTION   IV 

The  Socialistic  Labor  Party.  The  Socialistic  Labor 
Party  of  Germany  is  a  conglomerate  of  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments without  the  cohesion  of  ideas,  ethics,  or  ideals, 
strangely  thrown  together  by  the  anti-social  forces  of 
industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism.  Such  a  mixed  mass 
must  separate  into  its  homogeneous  parts,  the  moment  the 
artificial  pressure  ceases  or  is  reduced  or  the  most  numerous 
element  is  powerfully  attracted  by  the  moral  forces  of  the 
social  organism,  wherof  the  mass  is  but  a  fractional  part. 
This  is  already  apparent.  The  Socialistic  Labor  Party  is, 
so  to  say,  not  a  malignant  tumor  in  the  body  politic  to 
be  cut  out  by  surgeon's  knife,  but  a  neoplasm  which  will 
readily  yield  to  the  remedies  the  intellectual  class  shall 
prescribe,  as  soon  as  it  thoroughly  understands  the  nature 
of  the  disease  which  has  produced  the  new  formation. 
The  cure  of  la  maladie  social,  as  the  Frenchmen  call  this 
disease,  cannot  be  effected  hj  the  rancorous  ire  of  ignorance 
or  by  exorcism;  it  is  not  a  case  for  the  surgeon,  unless 
neglected,  in  which  case  it  may  develop  into  a  malignant 
tumor  and  even  cause  death,  operation  or  no  operation. 
The  disease  will  yield  only  to  scientific  treatment,  and  to 
this  the  intellectual  class  must  apply  itself. 

The  intellectual  class  or  learned  estate  of  Germany  has 
taken  up  the  study  of  the  disease,  because,  as  a  class,  it  al- 
ready has  been  deeply  affected  by  it.  From  the  traditions 
of  the  race,  from  the  ethics  of  the  Reformation,  and 
through  the  application  of  unclouded  reason  and  of  science, 
this  class  will  evolve  the  remedial  measures  to  effect  the 
gradual  transformation  of  the  social  organism,  the  process 
to  be  regulated  in  time  and  degree  by  the  successive  ad- 
vances of  the    masses    in    general    culture.     The    Social- 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AAIERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       341 

istic  Labor  Party  of  Germany,  as  now  constituted  of  often 
disloyal  and  always  heterogeneous  elements,  is  really  not 
dangerous  to  society,  but  the  fact  that  the  intellectual  class 
of  that  country  appears  to  be  thoroughly  dissatisfied  with 
its  social  and  economic  position  and  fully  aroused  to  the 
necessity  of  an  uncompromising  and  rapid  advance  in  the 
direction  of  socialism,  is  ominous  not  only  to  the  social  order 
of  Germany  but  also  to  that  of  every  other  civilized  country. 
Germany  still  being  the  fountain  of  intellectual  and  eth- 
ical progress,  such  a  spiritual  movement  of  her  intellectual 
class  must  affect  the  entire  civilized  world.  In  force  of 
character  and  intensity  of  purpose  it  will  be  far  stronger 
than  the  Reformation.  It  is  the  revolt  of  intelligence  that 
is  dangerous  to  society  and  fateful  to  rulers  and  to  the 
oppressors  of  peoples.  It  seems  to  be  the  sense  of  Ger- 
many's intellectual  class,  that  superior  strength  and  cun- 
ning shall  no  longer  supersede  in  authority  of  intellectuality 
and  culture. 

SECTION  V 

Social  Progress.  The  life  of  a  State,  like  the  life  of  an 
individual,  is  but  a  progressive  development  of  intelli- 
gence, and  character.  To  make  possible  such  a  develop- 
ment, it  is  necessary  that  all  men  should  enjoy  the  largest 
possible  measure  of  freedom,  and  should  be  equally  bound 
by  the  ethical  and  mutual  obligations  which  are  essential 
to  social  existence  on  the  basis  laid  do\^Ti  by  Clirist  in  his 
sermon  on  the  JMount.  So  long  as  men  are  mortal,  there 
will  exist  a  natural  inequality  in  mental  and  moral  qualities. 
We  may  proclaim  human  equality  as  loud  as  we  please  but 
we  cannot  change  the  laws  of  nature  which  as  to  mental 
and  moral  qualities,  capriciously  bestows  its  favors  upon  the 
children  of  the  same  family.  It  never  can  be  the  business 
of  society  to  equalize  by  decrees  the  mental  and  moral  qual- 
ities of  the  members  of  the  social  family.  Such  an  attempt 
would  lead  to  anarchical  conditions  under  which  every 
member  of  the  community  would  be  a  government  unto  him- 
self. So  long  a.s  society  is  society  all  it  can  do  is  to  guard 
against  the  anti-social  forces  of  superior  physical  strength 
and  cunning  and  to  open  by  proper  legislation  and  the 
removal  of  all  debris  of  past  ages  a  clear  pathway  for  merit 
of  any  kind. 

Thomas  Jefferson  said:     "Laws  and  institutions  must 


342  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

go  hand  iii  liand  with  the  progress  of  the  human  mind," 
and  again:  "The  New  England  townsliips  are  the  vital 
principles  of  tiieir  Governmenls,  and  have  proved  them- 
selves the  wisest  invention  ever  devised  by  men  for  the  per- 
fect exercise  of  self-government  and  for  its  preservation," 
If  we  adopt  these  tniths  as  the  guides  to  our  political  action 
our  progress  in  the  direction  of  socialism  will  be  peaceful 
and  free  of  error.  The  one  instructs  us  as  to  whom  we 
should  intrust  with  the  leadership  in  the  onward  march  of 
events,  the  other  points  out  to  us  the  form  of  government 
applicable  to  the  enlarged  responsibilities  of  the  community 
under  the  operation  of  the  more  perfect  social  institutions 
of  the  future.  The  system  of  the  New  England  township 
government  had  its  beginning  in  the  action  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  Charlestown,  JMass.,  when  they  adopted  on  Feb- 
ruary 10,  1635,  an  order  "for  the  government  of  the  town 
by  Selectmen,  giving  to  eleven  persons,  ivith  the  advice  of 
Pastor  and  teacher,  the  authority  to  manage  their  local 
affairs  for  one  year."  This  form  of  self-government  was 
inconsistent  with  a  system  of  great  plantations,  like  those  in 
the  Southern  colonies ;  and  it  was  this  fact  more  than  any- 
thing else  which  developed  such  difference  in  character  as 
actually  existed  between  the  North  and  South.  It  is  also 
inconsistent  with  the  existence  of  trusts  and  corporations, 
with  industrial  feudalism  and  Capitalism.  The  good  people 
of  Charlestown  were  prophetic  of  the  events  leading  to  a 
higher  civilization  when  they  decreed:  "with  the  advice  of 
Pastor  and  teacher,"  the  representatives  of  the  intellectual 
class  in  a  primitive  community  of  the  wilderness. 

With  forty  centuries  of  human  progress,  and  the  exper- 
ience of  our  people  during  the  century  of  their  independent 
political  existence  before  us,  it  would  be  foolish,  were  we 
in  this  age  of  science,  to  accept  the  present  structure  of 
society  as  perfect  and  hence  give  ourselves  up  to  the  blind 
worship  of  political  creeds  and  social  institutions  of  the 
past.  That  certain  forms  of  government  and  social  orders 
have  been  by  past  generations  accepted  as  perfect,  is  no 
proof  that  they  are  perfect  or  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
future.  Though  certain  theories  for  centuries  had  been 
accepted  by  the  wisest  of  their  time,  succeeding  generations 
discovered  their  untenability  and  proclaimed  new  ideas  as 
they  saw  them  in  the  pure  light  of  reason.  For  centuries 
the  only  proper  economic  system  for  civilized  peoples  was 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES      343 

held  and  believed  to  be  a  competitive  system,  likewise  that 
the  struggle  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  destructive  of 
life,  health,  and  happiness,  was  sanctioned  by  the  God  of 
mere}'  and  love;  to-day  the  wisest  of  men  and  thousands 
of  divines  boldly  assert  that  the  one  is  a  woeful  error  of 
the  human  mind,  and  the  other  a  relic  of  heathen  barbarism 
and  superstition. 

Whenever,  in  past  ages,  the  wisest  and  holiest  of  men 
have  in  contradiction  of  long  accepted  beliefs,  raised  the 
standard  of  truth  and  justice,  they  were  ostracised  by  the 
fetish  worshipers  and  even  made  to  suffer  a  martyr's 
death.  But  truth  is  mighty  and  must  in  the  end  prevail. 
Succeeding  generations  accepted  the  new  ideas  and  ad- 
vanced in  the  humane.  When  we  turn  the  pages  of  history 
we  shudder  at  the  woeful  tales  of  the  death  of  martyrs  and 
of  tlie  destruction  of  nations  and  realms  due  to  the  stubborn 
refusal  of  generations  to  give  up  the  old  and  accept  the  new, 
adhering  to  the  past.  Thus,  too,  future  generations  may 
contemplate  with  amazement  our  idolatrous  veneration  for 
an  antiquated  economic  and  social  system  which,  transmitted 
through  the  passions  of  avarice,  ambition,  and  fear  from 
the  Dark  Ages  to  the  age  of  science,  may  sweep  us  into 
anarchy  and  ruin. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Sublime  Mission  of  our  Universities 

section  i 

The  Education  of  Our  Future  Rulers.  Whether  future 
generations  shall  bless  or  curse  us,  whether  American  society 
shall  stejulily  advance  towards  an  ideal  state  or  from  want 
of  spiritual  motion  decay,  must  depend  on  the  rapid  prog- 
ress of  our  intellectual  class  in  science  and  ethical  culture, 
and  therefore  on  our  ability  and  willingness  to  change  the 
foundations  of  our  universities  and  to  enlarge  their  func- 
tions by  the  introduction  of  more  intellectual  and  humane 
elements. 

It  would  be  far  better  to  have  the  material  progress  of 
the  country  come  to  a  stop  than  to  continue  the  prodigal 
Byzantine  practice,  a  policy  which  already  has  brought 
about  the  complete  and  almost  irremedial  downfall  of  the 
landmarks  that  served  as  guides  in  the  moral,  social,  and 
political  life  of  our  nation.  To  restore  these  and  secure 
for  them  greater  and  more  lasting  prominence  will  be  the 
imperative  duty  of  our  future  rulers  whom  we  must  educate 
in  our  universities. 

Men  and  communities  are  not  elevated  by  new  adjust- 
ments of  social  relations  nor  made  humane  and  heroic 
in  spirit  by  decrees  but  only  by  the  slow  process  of  educa- 
tion. To  be  permanent  and  beneficent,  the  change  in  a 
nation 's  life  for  the  better  must  be  effected  from  within  and 
the  impulse  must  issue  from  the  centers  of  culture — the  uni- 
versities. The  changes  which  the  past  century  has  wit- 
nessed in  the  relation  of  social  classes  and  in  the  subjects 
of  knowledge  are  making  the  life  of  a  nation  but  a  reflex 
of  the  cultural  life  of  the  universities.  Where  these  are 
merely  marts  of  knowledge  and  not  seats  of  spontaneous 
and  sustained  research,  or  places  of  liberal  culture  and 
moral  training  for  life  in  general,  there  the  ultimate  fate 
of  a  nation  will  be  moral  decay,  and  all  schemes  for  recon- 
structing society  and  for  making  the  people  virtuous  and 
happy    must    prove    ineffectual    death.     A    subtle,    moral 

344 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       345 

energy  issues  from  universities  when  these  give  to  the 
future  rulers  of  a  nation  a  truly  humanizing  and  liberalizing 
education,  and  the  soul-culture  is  not  sacrificed  to  a  mere 
training  for  a  bread  and  butter  earning  career. 

SECTION   II 

The  Cramming  Process.  Measured  by  the  educational 
standard  of  Europe,  our  colleges  and  so-called  universities 
were,  until  within  a  generation,  merely  preparatory  schools 
in  which  our  youth  received  a  narrow  sectarian  training 
because  these  institutions  were  allied  to  different  religious 
denominations.  That  many  of  the  students  became  emin- 
ent in  literature,  in  art,  and  in  philosophy  is  true,  but  not 
through  these  institutions;  they  became  eminent  in  spite 
of  their  early  education  because  genius  will  not  stay  within 
narrow  bounds. 

A  fixed  curriculum,  enforced  attendance  on  all  college 
exercises,  the  marking  system,  the  paternal  attitude  of  the 
faculty  toward  the  student,  and  the  essentially  religious 
character  of  all  his  surroundings  may  have  been  favorable 
to  mental  discipline  of  a  conventional  kind  and  to  the  cram- 
ming process.  They  were,  however,  detrimental  to  moral 
autonomy  and  did  not  represent  even  a  partial  apprecia- 
tion of  the  fact,  that  a  university  training  does  not  consist 
merely  in  learning,  but  in  the  harmonious  combination  of 
teaching  and  investigation  free  from  all  restraint,  in  the 
intellectual  and  humane  elements  with  which  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  seat  of  learning  is  charged,  in  societies,  in  the 
associations  of  the  faculty  and  students  with  the  outside 
world  and  that  of  culture,  and  in  the  many  undefined  things 
which  are  evolved  from  the  absolutely  free  and  constant 
intercourse  of  the  professors  and  students  with  the  genius 
of  the  age. 

The  pretentiousness  of  our  colleges  in  educational  mat- 
ters became  a  national  misfortune.  While  their  graduates 
in  exceptional  cases  only  were  sufficiently  advanced  in 
knowledge  and  general  culture  to  pass  the  matriculation 
examination  in  a  European  university  and  were  spiritually 
restricted  in  the  contemplation  of  all  things  that  pertain 
to  general  culture  and  to  the  ever  changing  conditions  of 
modern  life,  they  applied  their  limited,  often  antiquated 
knowledge  and  their  twisted  or  cramped  faculties  of  mind 
and  soul  to  the  affairs  of  State  and  society  with  the  assur- 


346  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

ance  of  the  man,  of  whom  the  Bible  tells  us,  that  he  was 
' '  wise  in  his  own  conceit. ' ' 

It  is  true  that,  within  a  generation,  an  undisputable 
change  for  tiie  better  has  been  wrought  in  our  higher  educa- 
tional institutions  by  the  advance,  of  the  nation,  from 
provincialism  and  narrow  fanaticism  toward  the  ethical 
ideal  of  the  Galilean  lisherman  which  is  universal  and 
human,  and  which  must  be  the  ideal  of  the  American  democ- 
racy and  of  Progressive  Protestantism.  We  have  now  a 
number  of  educationad  institutions  which,  as  to  the  choice 
of  studies,  the  improvement  of  teaching,  and  a  larger  aca- 
demic policy,  may  claim  the  title  of  university,  and  they 
will  have  fully  earned  it,  when  their  directors  fully  ap- 
preciate the  fact  that  the  history  of  the  universities  is  the 
record  of  the  moral  and  social  evolution  of  the  human  race 
in  the  Christian  era. 

SECTION  in 

Secularization  and  Nationalization.  Whether  our  edu- 
cators ever  will  appreciate  the  aforementioned  fact,  depends 
on  the  American  people  making  the  social  progress  which 
will  bring  about  the  nationalization  of  university  education. 
Otherwise,  the  newly  planted  tree,  rooted  in  a  soil  but 
imperfectly  prepared,  may  be  destroyed  by  dry  rot  before 
it  reaches  full  growi;h,  blossoms,  and  bears  fruit.  True 
university  education  presupposes  complete  secularization  of 
education  so  far  as  teaching  and  investigation  are  con- 
cerned. This  does  not  imply  the  substitution  of  material- 
ism or  vulgar  naturalism  for  Christian  etliics,  but  it  does 
mean  that  secular  instruction  shall  not  be  subordinated  to 
the  teaching  of  dogma,  or  that  the  pure  light  of  science  be 
transmitted  through  an  ancient  medium  absorbing  or  color- 
ing the  rays.  The  German  universities  are  entirely  removed 
from  all  religious  and  dogmatic  influences;  they  are  to- 
day the  freest  spots  on  earth  and  yet  are  the  bulwarks  of 
Protestantism,  are  deeply  imbued  with  the  humanizing 
spirit  of  Christianity,  and  are  the  embodiment  of  the  ethics 
of  the  Reformation. 

Unfortunately,  our  principal  institutions  of  learning  are 
under  the  direction  of  sects,  or  were  founded  and  endowed 
by  narrow  minded  sectarians  and  plutocrats.  These,  often 
ignorant,  always  bigoted  people,  who  had  and  have  not  the 
least  conception  of  a  university  education,  really  thought  or 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       347 

think  it  possible,  to  establish  sectarian  institutions  of  learn- 
ing that  shall  aspire  to  the  dignity  and  scope  of  universities. 
The  late  President  Harper  of  the  Chicago  University, 
endowed  by  the  Standard  oil  king,  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
proposed  as  a  remedy  for  the  "secular  instruction  that  is 
uneliristianiziug  the  universities"  the  exclusion  of  agnostics 
from  the  professor 's  chair.  How  under  such  a  condition  to 
establish  a  first  class  university,  must  be  left  to  the  type 
of  men  like  that  College  President  who  lately  presided  at  a 
meeting  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Romish  cause  in  this 
country  and  thus  endorsed  the  assaults  on  Protestantism 
and  the  cruel  distortion  of  historical  facts  by  a  convert  to 
Catholicism  who  attempted  to  prove  that  the  Roman  eccles- 
iastical machine  has  been  and  is  the  most  tolerant  and  pro- 
gressive institution  of  the  civilized  world. 

SECTION  IV 

Plutocracy's  Harmful  Protection.  Can  such  men  ex- 
plain, why  the  Christian  evangel,  which  they  think  is  in 
danger  of  being  supplanted  by  secular  teachings,  has  not 
been  able  to  exclude  from  the  most  sectarian  colleges  the 
spirit  of  brutishness  that  manifests  itself  in  the  football 
game,  of  which  Bourget,  the  French  philosopher  and  his- 
torian, says,  that  it  "is  a  game  of  young  bulldogs  brought 
up  to  bite  and  tear,"  and  in  outrages  of  the  cowardly  and 
infamous  character  as  was  the  crime  of  which  some 
years  ago  the  students  of  Cornell  University  were  guilty. 
Is  such  a  crime  not  akin  to  that  of  the  anarchist  bomb- 
thrower?  The  shamefully  riotous  conduct  of  mobs  of 
students,  of  which  we  hear  almost  daily,  the  fact,  that 
faculties  distinctly  encourage  the  sneaks  and  poltroons  of 
hazing  notoriety,  and  the  hiring  of  professional  ruffians 
to  masquerade  as  students  on  football  teams,  are  certainly 
not  chargeable  to  the  agnostic  tendency  of  the  science  of 
philosophy  or  to  the  Christian  evangel  but  to  the  distor- 
tion of  moral  theology  by  sectarian  fanaticism  in  the 
service  of  IMammon.  How  is  it,  that  in  Yale  College 
where  sectarian  influences  are  paramount,  the  bulldog 
spirit  is  most  zealously  nursed,  and  the  gouging  of  eyes, 
the  cracking  of  skulls,  and  cowardly  violence  are  consid-. 
ered  by  the  faculty  as  a  magnificent  advertisement  for  the 
institution ! 

This  bulldog  spirit  flows  from  the  subserviency  of  the 


348  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

faculties  to  pkitooracy  wliich  by  a  judicious  investment  of 
millions  exercises  a  commanciing  intlueuce  over  the  higher 
educational  institutions  of  the  land  and  fosters  the  spirit 
of  savagery,  that  the  future  rulers  of  the  people  may  qualify 
as  proper  tools  for  the  corruption  and  oppression  of  the 
masses.  The  fear,  that  our  university  education  may  be 
stranded  on  the  mudbanks  of  Capitalism,  is  not  a  crea- 
tion of  fancy,  but  of  the  logic  of  facts  which  are  daily 
recorded. 

The  New  York  Sun,  the  organ  par  excellence  of  the 
plutocracy,  cautioned  in  an  article  entitled  "Hostility  to 
accumulated  Wealth"  the  rich  men  of  this  country  to  en- 
list on  their  side  the  intelligence  if  they  expected  to  secure 
their  riches,  because  otherwise  they  would  be  as  helpless 
to  resist  spoliation  by  the  majority  of  the  people  as  were 
the  nobility  of  France  to  resist  the  revolutionists  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Another  article  in  the  same  news- 
paper, in  which  the  Vanderbilt  family  is  lauded  and  mag- 
niiied  for  an  additional  gift  of  $500,000  to  Columbia  Col- 
lege, contains  the  very  significant  remark  "it  is  also  an 
evidence  of  their  sound  judgment." 

There  is  imminent  danger  that  our  student  youth  will 
be  systematically  corrupted  and  brutalized  in  the  interest 
of  plutocracy.  When  they  are  grown  to  manhood  and 
enter  into  the  affairs  of  life  or  assume  the  government  of 
the  nation,  they  will  foster  the  worst  tendencies  of  the 
struggle  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest;  their  Brahminical 
brutality  will  brush  aside  all  considerations  of  humanity 
in  their  dealings  with  the  masses;  their  intelligence  and 
caste  will  serve  their  plutocratic  masters  and  accelerate 
the  process  for  the  permanent  repression  of  the  people. 

As  a  humanizing  and  liberalizing  ageucj'  our  system  of 
university  education  is  a  fraud,  and  a  snare  for  the  masses. 
Under  the  dominant  influences  of  narrow  fanaticism  and 
plutocratic  vulgarity  it  produces  neither  statesmen  nor 
educators  of  the  people,  but  only  corrupt  and  petty  poli- 
ticians and  as  to  faith  and  character,  vulgar  hypocrites. 
It  is  a  deplorable  fact  that  research  and  culture  are  not 
sought  after,  or  only  furtively  and  without  honor,  by  the 
students ;  no  higher  aims  as  to  learning,  enlightenment,  and 
the  humane  are  set  before  them ;  the  esprit  de  corps  does 
not  exert  itself  toward  the  elevation  of  character  or  in  the 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       349 

planting  and  nursing  of  honor,  but  to  the  apotheosis  of 
muscle  at  the  expense  of  the  brain,  heart,  and  soul. 

SECTION   V 

An  Imperative  Duty  of  Our  Student  Youth.  Self- 
preservation  commands  tlie  American  democracy  to  nation- 
alize the  universities  and  preparatory  schools.  American 
society  has  reached  that  stage  of  development  where  the 
direction  of  public  affairs  must  be  left  to  those  having 
received  a  university  education  and  a  special  training  in 
all  the  branches  of  knowledge  applicable  to  the  complex 
machinery  of  modern  government.  The  science  of  govern- 
ment can  no  longer  be  mastered  by  undisciplined  minds  or 
by  so-called  business  men,  brought  up  in  the  sordid  atmos- 
phere of  the  counting-room,  and  by  vulgar  politicians,  the 
chance  product  of  ward  caucuses.  Furthermore,  it  takes 
something  besides  brains  to  lift  to  a  higher  plane  the  nation- 
al conscience  and,  thereby,  the  government  of  this  great 
democracy.  If  we  search  for  statesmanship  in  the  counting- 
room  and  in  the  ranks  of  the  professional  politicians  of  the 
class  that  for  a  generation  or  more  has  been  the  curse  of  the 
nation,  we  search  in  vain.  "We  must  educate  the  statesmen 
of  the  future;  we  must  educate  our  future  rulers.  To  do 
so,  successfully,  the  generality  of  the  nation  must  control 
the  universities  in  which  only  such  education  is  possible. 
If  we  fail  in  this,  the  passions  of  man  will  bring  about  a 
social  and  political  deluge,  the  end  of  which  no  mortal  can 
foresee. 

Morally  we  are  already  arrived  at  a  point  from  which 
further  steps  in  the  downward  direction  will  throw  us  into 
anarchy  with  its  climax,  militarism  or  clerical  despotism. 
Fortunately,  society  at  large  can  travel  no  faster  than  the 
majority,  which  still  consists  of  the  God  fearing  men  who 
produce  the  wealth  of  the  nation  and  of  their  women  who 
hold  sacred  the  duties  of  wife  and  mother.  Under  proper 
guidance  their  patriotism  and  virtue  will  triumph  over 
ruffianism  and  moral  frivolity,  and,  if  necessary,  they  will 
strip  the  plutocratic  oppressors  of  their  immense  and  ill- 
gotten  wealth,  the  fountain  source  of  social  immorality  in 
our  republic. 

There  is  a  deeply  rooted  instinct  in  the  men  of  our  race  to 
admire  what  they  find  in  others  better  than  in  themselves 
and  to  follow  the  leadership  of  those  who  by  their  fidelity 


350  CASSOCK  AND  SWORD 

to  the  traditions  of  our  race  and  to  tlie  ever  ennohlinf? 
trutlis  of  Cliristianity  are  ordained  to  lift  society  to  a  higher 
]ilane.  These  divinely  ordained  leaders  ^nll  be  dra\\Ti 
from  the  intellectual  class,  from  the  ranks  of  the  thousands 
of  studious  young  men  in  our  universities,  who  are  now  the 
scrubs,  grinds,  or  digs,  and  whose  light  is  obscured  by  the 
gods  of  the  heathen  arena.  These  studious  youths,  who  are 
now  despised  and  looked  down  upon,  must  cast  their  lot 
with  the  democratic  masses,  with  the  silent  throng  of  sad- 
faced  Christian  people  who  are  tilling  the  soil  and  are  turn- 
ing the  wheels  of  industry,  and  who  are  the  solid,  immovable 
pillars  of  the  structure  of  democracies. 

To  educate  the  intelligence  is  to  enlarge  the  horizon  of 
its  desires  and  wants.  From  Golgotha  down  to  the  martyr- 
dom of  Abraham  Lincoln,  every  advance  of  the  human  race 
has  been  the  work  of  the  intellectual  class,  of  the  student 
youth  who  were  despised  and  looked  down  upon  and  who,  in 
manhood,  tore  do^vn  the  structure  of  a  rotten  society  that 
had  abused  them  and  failed  to  recognize  their  divine  right 
to  rule.  They  always  leaven  with  light  and  righteousness 
the  almost  immovable  body  that  is  the  broad  foundation  of 
every  society. 

It  is  an  imperative  duty  of  our  student  youth  to  organize 
that  they  may  assume  the  leadership  in  the  movement  to 
nationalize  our  universities  and  to  regenerate  and  recon- 
struct society.  They  should  organize,  as  the  German  stu- 
dents did  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  centurj^  when  their 
country  was  in  the  darkness  of  despair.  The  Christian  and 
patriotic  spirit  of  their  organization,  the  "  Burschenschaft, " 
roused  the  German  people  to  the  highest  moral  and  intel- 
lectual endeavor.  Our  student  youth  should  prepare  them- 
selves to  assume  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  govern- 
ment. Thomas  Arnold  says :  ' '  The  highest  earthly  desire 
of  a  ripened  mind  is  the  desire  of  taking  an  active  share  in 
the  great  work  of  government. ' '  To  the  labor  of  the  disci- 
plined and  ripened  mind  must  be  left  the  solution  of  the 
economic  and  social  problems  agitating  society  and  their 
adaptation  to  our  national  genius,  racial  traditions,  and 
religious  customs. 

Therefore,  the  future  of  the  American  democracy  depends 
on  the  role  of  the  intellectual  class  in  the  process  of 
the  reorganization  of  society.  The  chai*acter  of  this  process, 
whether  peaceful  or  violent,  whether  progressive  or  reac- 


SOCIAL  QUESTION  AND  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES       351 

tionary,  Mill  be  determined  by  the  character  of  the  moving 
forces. 

Whether  the  reorganization  of  society  will  be  enforced 
by  a  revolt  of  intelligence  and,  therefore,  in  an  orderly  and 
beneficent  manner,  or  by  the  insurrection  of  ignorance  and, 
therefore,  in  a  violent  manner  with  doubtful  results,  or  will 
be  brought  about  by  anarchical  conditions  favoring  the 
establishment  of  clerical  despotism  and  of  the  Papacy  on 
American  soil,  must  be  left  to  the  process  of  time. 

That  Rome  expects  the  last  of  these  alternatives  and  de- 
cidedly prefers  it,  has  been  clearly  shown  in  these  pages. 
If  further  proof  is  necessary,  it  is  furnished  implicatively 
by  IMgr.  Satolli  in  an  address  delivered  at  the  annual  ban- 
quet of  the  Carroll  Institute,  Washington,  D.  C,  February 
25,  1895.  The  exponent  of  the  thoughts  and  policy  of  Leo 
XIII  said: 

''The  opinion  is  certainly  growing  that  we  are  nearing  a 
most  critical  point  in  history,  and  that  in  this  country 
especially  great  problems  will  soon  demand  positive  solution. 
All  the  horrors  of  a  social  revolution  are  predicted  by  men 
as  renowned  for  accurate  and  calm  thinking  as  Professor 
Goldwin  Smith  and  Professor  Von  Hoist.  .  .  .  The  Catholic 
Church  alone  holds  the  true  solution  of  the  terrible  problem 
which  lies  on  the  threshold  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  it 
belongs  to  the  Pope  alone  to  pronounce  a  social  Pax  Vohis- 

But  while  Cardinal  Satolli,  Archbishop  of  Lepanto  and 
political  agent  of  the  infallible  Pope,  counsels  the  American 
people  to  efface  from  their  mind  the  glorious  and  humaniz- 
ing achievements  of  their  ancestors  and  to  accept  as  a  future 
condition  the  spiritual,  economic,  and  social  slavery  of  the 
common  herd  during  the  Dark  Ages,  the  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims,  of  Herkimer  and  Hale,  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
John  Brown  will  find  the  solution  of  the  momentous  problem 
confronting  them  on  the  threshold  of  the  twentieth  century 
in  the  traditions  of  their  race,  in  the  ethics  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and,  therefore,  in  the  perfection  of  the  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  democracy  which  only  is  entitled  to  pronounce  to  a 
Protestant  and  Republican  community  a  social  Pax  Vobis- 
cum — Progressive  and  Aggressive  Protestantism. 


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